SECTION TWO
THE ENGLISH REGIME IN 18TH CENTURY NOVA SCOTIA
Annapolis Royal
In 1710, the French town of Port Royal capitulated to the English and was renamed
Annapolis Royal. The English possession of Nova Scotia was confirmed in the Treaty of
Utrecht in 1713, although the French retained Cape Breton and there was a dispute about
the possession of the territory that is now New Brunswick. New England had been
instrumental in capturing the province and, according to MacNutt, felt certain
proprietary rights, conniving to keep settlers out of the province and leaving the fishery,
the dominant industry, as a common property.1 Governor Jonathan Belcher of
Massachusetts discouraged settlement in Nova Scotia commenting "`the government of
the petty province of Nova Scotia has been one constant scene of tyranny. God deliver
me and mine from the government of soldiers.'" He recommended the "`easy, civil
government'" of Massachusetts.2
Although Annapolis Royal was the seat of the new colonial government in Nova
Scotia, the center of the New England fishery was at Canso, which emerged as a
prominent town with a permanent population of New Englanders by 1729. The town,
however, had virtually disappeared by 1734.3 Nova Scotia was ruled by an arbitrary
military government4 from Annapolis, which "was far removed and impotent",5
compounding the problems of governing what MacNutt termed "this rather ephemeral
community of transients". Military-style government reflected the nature of the British
as an occupying power of a land settled primarily by Acadians and Micmac.
In 1720, a Council was established at Annapolis Royal, presided over by the
Lieutenant Governor in the usual absence of Governor Phillips. The Council dealt with
the day to day governing of the province, dealing with weighty matters (particularly
concerning the security of the garrison in the face of Indian and Acadian opposition), as
W. S. MacNuttt, The Atlantic Provinces: The Emergence of Colonial Society, 1712-1857,
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1965 p. 15.
2 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 32.
3 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, pp. 22-23.
4 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 13.
5 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 22.
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well as with such civil matters, which came to the attention of the Governor through
petitions. For example, the Reverend Cuthbertson was ordered confined to the garrison
without port liberty on the petition of the husband of Margaret Douglass. He had
continued his scandalous affair contrary to the reproofs of the husband and the advice of
the Lieutenant-Governor.6 Mary D'Aigre's petition for child support against Joseph
Brosard was granted. (Brosard denied paternity, but the mid-wife testified that daughter
Mary had named him the father "in her most Violent Pains"). Brosard was ordered to pay
3 shillings 9 pence per week until the child reached the age of eight, and to immediately
give good security for his performance of this order, under threat of imprisonment if he
could not find this security. Deputy Abram Bourg and inhabitant William Bourgeway
each gave a 100-pound assurance for Brosard.7
Security was also demanded as bail. James Saunders and Peter Henderson were
charged with murdering Abiel Bell at Canso. Appearing at Annapolis Royal before the
Council, Saunders was charged to appear for trial at Canso within eight months, and
Henderson within six months. Bail was set at 400 pounds for Saunders and 200 pounds
for Henderson, in New England currency.8
Prudane Robichaud Sr. was imprisoned in irons along with the Indian hostages for
the "hineous midimanour" of entertaining an Indian in his house contrary to a ruling of 1
August 1722. The Council decided to release him on account of his age and his having
been so long in irons, provided that he could find sufficient security "for his future good
behaviour".9
In 1721, the Governor called the Council to consider establishing a Court of
Judicature for the province. This was justified by "the dayly cry...for Justice by many of
the inhabitants...by Memorialls, Petitions and Complaints." One Article of Phillips'
instructions had been to make the laws of Virginia the pattern for Nova Scotia. In
Virginia, the Governor and Council were the Supreme Court of Judicature. It was
decided that such a court would be established in Nova Scotia annually, based on the
proceedings and practices of the Virginia General Court, to meet on the first Tuesday in
May, August, November and February; "Which Court to have the same Style and
Minutes of His Majesty's Council at Annapolis Royal, 1720-1739, Ed. By Archibald
MacMechan, (Halifax: Nova Scotia Archives, Vol. 3, 1908), pp. 74-76. Cuthbert was
notorious in the community, being brought before the Council again for a debt of 28
pounds 15 shillings. (p. 101).
7 Minutes of H.M. Council, 20 October 1726, pp. 112-113.
8 Minutes of H.M. Council, 23 October 1720, pp. 20.21.
9 Minutes of H.M. Council, 22 May 1725, pp. 100-101.
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Cognizance of all matters and pleas brought before them and power to give Judgment
and award."10
It was a difficult province to govern and create order. The majority of the
population was comprised of Acadian French. At the time of the conquest, there were
approximately 5,000 Acadians settled predominantly at Port Royal, Minas, Chignecto and
the Peticodiac Valley. According to historian MacNutt:
"The Acadians had been favoured by slack government, for long periods by
no government at all. They had learned to ignore corrupt governors.... A
purely peasant society had developed.... One vexed French governor...
declared that they behaved like true republicans, acknowledging neither
royal authority nor courts of law. Illiteracy was the common rule.
Communal decisions were arrived at by general expression of the public
will, achieved in assembly at church doors on Sunday mornings by the
guidance of parish priests whose influence could almost always be
decisive."11
The military regime was insecure in Nova Scotia and under threat from the French
in Cape Breton and Canada as well as from their Micmac allies. The military determined
on a scheme of Indian hostages to compel the Micmacs to sign treaties of peace, keeping
the hostages in prison at Annapolis Royal. The Council voted to execute one of these
hostages in reprisal for an Indian raid, which killed a Sergeant and a civilian, and
wounded an officer and three men. They argued that the Indians would "Ly Under the
fear of Lossing Nine more Still left in our possession".12 They also employed the tactic of
banishment, particularly against French priests who were thought to be fomenting
rebellion. Father Charlemagne was banished in 1724. According to the Council, this was
"an Easy punishment and Not answering his Crime", but carried out so as not to ruffle the
existing alliance between the English and French Crowns.13 Besides to civil and criminal
matters, there was the problem of an undisciplined and poorly maintained military.
In addition, the province was little more than an outpost of the New England
fishery. The litigiousness common to fishermen, the chronic disputes between skippers
and crews, shoremen and seamen, compelled Lawrence Armstrong, the
Lieutenant-Governor, to establish a makeshift constitution in 1724. An assembly of
fishermen drafted rules against drunkenness, slandering, and Sabbath-breaking, for the
Minutes of H.M. Council, 19-20 April, 1721, pp. 28-29.
11 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, pp. 6-7.
12 Minutes of H. M. Council, 8 July 1724, pp. 56-57.
13 Minutes of H. M. Council, 8 July 1724, pp. 65-66.
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governance of taverns and the maintenance of order. "A sufficient number of the most
knowing men" were appointed as a tribunal before which cases of breach of contract
might be brought.
Yet truculence and disorder persisted in spite of Armstrong’s elaborate efforts.
Desperately he wrote for permission to remove the seat of government from Annapolis to
Canso so that the New England demand for a general assembly of the people, after their
own custom, might be gratified. Discontent produced the familiar New England
complaints against arbitrary government. The garrison commander encroached on the
powers of the justices of the peace.... Armstrong was sensitive to the democratic
predilections of Canso, "the least appearance of a civil government being more agreeable
to the inhabitants than the martial."14 Armstrong, however, was resolutely opposed to
republicanism.
Despite the plans for a General Court to meet quarterly, however, by 1726 there
was still no Court of Judicature other than the Council for the administration of Justice
and prosecuting crimes. In September 1726, Robert Nicholls, a servant to Lieutenant
Governor Lawrence Armstrong, appeared before the Council charged with "assaulting
and offering...violence" to Armstrong. The Council determined that this insolence
merited severe punishment as an example "in order to terrifie all Such bold harden'd
Villains". The Council determined that the punishment to be inflicted was
"to Sitt upon a Gallows three Days, half an hour each Day, with a Rope
about thy Neck and a paper upon your Breast Whereon shall be Writt in
Capitall Letters AUDACIOUS VILLAIN And afterwards thou art to be
Whipt at a Carts tail from the Prison up to the Uppermost house of the
Cape and from thence back again to the Prison house Receiving Each
hundred paces five Stripes Upon your Back with a Catt of Nine tails and
then thou art to be turn'd over for a Soldier."15
In 1728, Governor Richard Phillips was ordered to return to Nova Scotia to
establish a scheme of civil government and to populate the province with a "mixed
lineage".16 Nothing significant came of this proposal until 1748 when the Imperial
government decided to fortify the province as a bulwark between the French at
Louisburg and the English settlements in New England. The result was the decision to
fortify the harbour at Chebucto and led to the founding of Halifax in 1749 and the
transfer of colonial government to the new settlement.
MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, pp. 23-24.
15 Minutes of H. M. Council, 22-23 September 1726, pp. 126- 127.
16 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 32.
14
4
18th Century Courts and Laws: The English Model
Although sources for the study of institutional developments prior to 1800 are less
readily available than for subsequent periods, what is clear is that there was a concern for
the indigent and/or criminal population almost immediately following the founding of
Halifax in 1749. In the original town plan, laid out by engineer John Bruce and surveyor
Charles Morris, a square was reserved "on the steep face of the hill". It was proposed that
a church be built on the north end and "a combined jail and courthouse" at the south.
Eventually St. Paul's was built to the south "but the first courthouse occupied a site on
Buckingham Street to the north, and the first jail was established in a stone house built by
Colonel Horsman near the site of St. Mary’s Basilica far to the south."17
These facilities were soon pressed into service. The lenient immigration policy
allowed into the province those described by contemporaries as "cheats, rogues and
fraudulent bankrupts".18 Many of these arrivals were "extremely indigent” and "void of
all Sentiments of honest Industry".19 More significant than these idle but able arrivals
were the poor, the infirm, and the women and children left behind by departing soldiers
and sailors. These unfortunates had to be supported from local charities and taxes.20
According to Reverend Tutty, who sailed with Cornwallis on the Beaufort, the
settlers were either from Old or New England. The "lower sort among the former are in
general a set of most abandoned wretches...deeply sunk into almost all kinds of
immorality".21
As for the New Englanders, Tutty regarded most as dishonest, and
hypocritical, "their notorious prevarication... which appears in all their commercial
dealings is an evident proof of this melancholy truth".22
Thomas H. Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, (New York: Doubleday, 1965), p. 27.
Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Record Group 1, Vol. 19, Minutes of Council, 2
February 1750.
19 Green to Lords of Trade, 24 August 1766, in Akins (ed.) Public Documents of...Nova Scotia.
20 For an account of early poor relief in Halifax, see Williams, "Poor relief and medicine".
21 Reverend Tutty to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 29 September 1749,
"Letters and other papers relating to the early history of the Church of England in Nova
Scotia, pp.89-127 in Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, 1889-1891, Vol. VII,
Halifax: Morning Herald, 1891., p. 98.
22 Reverend Tutty to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 29 September 1749,
"Letters and other papers relating to the early history of the Church of England in Nova
Scotia, pp.89-127 in Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, 1889-1891, Vol. VII,
17
18
5
In his second letter to the Society, Tutty made reference to the "wise regulations
and prudent conduct of the governor" which had "contributed to the amendment" of those
not destroyed by intemperance.23 Cornwallis had given "the grand jury a particular
charge to use their utmost efforts to suppress the pernicious vice of excessive drinking".24
The colonial government moved quickly to institute the rudiments of
administration and enacted legislation providing for criminal justice and the
implementation of the English poor laws. Under the rights of his Royal Commission,
Governor Cornwallis undertook to establish regular courts of justice in the colony.25
Justices of the Peace were appointed in the summer of 1749.26 The first General Court in
the colony, which was composed of the Governor and his appointed Council, had as its
first order of business the trial of an Acadian, Peter Cartel, who was arraigned for the
murder of Abraham Goodside, the boatswain's mate on Nova Scotia’s floating
government house, the Beaufort. Two days later a general court was held in an empty
storehouse on the beach. A true bill was found against Cartel by a Grand Jury and a petit
jury found Cartel guilty of murder.27 He was hanged on the second of September 174928
at the site of the first landing, at the foot of present George Street. "Overshadowing the
landing place at the head of the cove stood a great hardwood tree whose branches,
according to tradition, were the town's first gallows." 29 This hanging tree, which stood on
the beach just above high water mark on the corner of the market slip, was used until 1763
when it was cut down. MacMechan comments "the Jeffreys plan of the City, published in
Halifax: Morning Herald, 1891., p. 99.
23 Reverend Tutty to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 29 September 1749,
"Letters and other papers relating to the early history of the Church of England in Nova
Scotia, pp.89-127 in Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, 1889-1891, Vol. VII,
Halifax: Morning Herald, 1891., p. 99, letter dated 11 June 1750, pp. 110-111.
24 Reverend Tutty to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 29 September 1749,
"Letters and other papers relating to the early history of the Church of England in Nova
Scotia, pp.89-127 in Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, 1889-1891, Vol. VII,
Halifax: Morning Herald, 1891., letter dated 11 June 1750, pp. 110-111.
25 Akins (ed.) Public Documents of...Nova Scotia, pp. 488- 501.
26 Arthur S. Barnstead, "Development of the office of Provincial Secretary, Nova Scotia",
Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Vol. 24, 1938, p. 11.
27 MacMechan, 1914: 85
28 Akins (ed.) Public Documents of...Nova Scotia, p. 579.
29 Thomas H. Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, (New York: Doubleday, 1965), p. 25.
6
1750, shows a regular gibbet and a pair of stocks on the beach as permanent decorations."30
On 18 June 1851, James Stephens and William Harris were hanged for house-breaking, the
second public execution in the town.31
The punishment of crime was a public spectacle. The gallows on the quay served
as the local Tyburn. Its audience was cheated of the thrill of a woman victim when
Lawrence reprieved Mary Webb for murdering her bastard in 1758, but got its prey on
May 20, 1760, when Martha Orpin was hanged for the murder of Robert Hemings. A
suicide in 1752 was ordered "to be buried without Christian burial in the next Adjacent
Cross Highway to the place where the said Felony was Committed, & Cause a stake to be
driven thro' the Body & other such marks of Infamy to be there set up in terror as has
heretofore been used & accustomed in the like cases." Christopher Moore, convicted of
coining and uttering counterfeit, had his ears nailed to the pillory and was publicly
whipped.32
In December of that first year, three members of Council were constituted as a
sub-committee to examine the practice of justice in the various colonies and, within a
week, they had recommended the system practised in Virginia.33 This entailed
establishing County Courts, in addition to the General Court, which were to meet on the
first Tuesday every month to try all criminal cases except those involving death,
dismemberment or out-lawry.34 An Inferior Court of Common Pleas, modeled after New
England experience, for trying civil cases, complemented these session’s courts. As
additional counties were created in the province, county courts were established in them
as well.
In January 1751 Council passed a series of regulations for the General Court and
County Courts and ordered them published by the Provost Marshall.35 The Governor in
Council appointed the Justices of the Peace, the Council itself appointed by the Governor.
The JPs were to be "'of good life and well affected to His Majesty’s Government and of
Archibald MacMechan, "Nova Scotia under English rule, 1713-1775", pp. 69-89 in
Canada and its Provinces, Vol. XIII Nova Scotia, ed. by Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty,
Toronto: Glasgow, Brook and Co., 1914, p. 86.
31 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 30.
32 P.A.N.S. 163 (3), 142 and N.S. A64, 170; Oct. 30, 1752, P.A.N.S. 163 (2), 26; and Chronicle,
Mar. 20, and Apr. 10, 1770; cited by Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 177.
33 PANS RG 1 Vol. 186, 31 Council Minutes, 13 December 1749.
34 Oxner, "Evolution of the lower courts", p. 61.
35 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 30.
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good estates and ability and not necessitous Persons’".36 The Council, Oxner notes, was
comprised of people who held salaried offices, and a steadily increasing number of
persons engaged in commercial pursuits. It was a body extremely supportive of the status
quo.37
The first Justices of the Peace were appointed on 18 July 1749, and the Court of
Sessions was first in session on 2 January 1750. At the same time, Oxner notes, the County
Court was established, to try all criminal cases except those involving death or
dismemberment or out-lawry. The County Court met the first Tuesday of every month
and continued until the list was completed.38 In March 1752 the Virginia model County
Court became a New England model Inferior Court of Common Pleas that met quarterly,
on the first Tuesday of March, June, September and December, the same time as the
Sessions Court. It "became a civil court only, of concurrent civil jurisdiction with the
general Court".39
Akins notes that the "progress of crime between 1749 and '54, was perhaps less
rapid than might have been expected among a population of 5,000 or 6,000". In this period
there were fifty criminal trials, "many convictions for grand larceny, which was then the
subject of capital punishment." After the appointment of Chief Justice Belcher, he adds,
"convictions were less frequent; most of the executions, as in the time of the general court,
were for stealing or receiving stolen goods."40
In Council on 11 March 1760, Governor Lawrence appointed fourteen Justices of
the Peace of Halifax City and County.41 On 30 December 1760, four additional Justices of
the Peace were added.42 He also appointed five Justices of the Inferior Court of Common
Pleas for Halifax County.43
Council Minutes, 3 August 1752, PANS RG 1 V. 186, 193; cited in Oxner 1984: 60.
Oxner "Evolution of the lower courts," p. 60; Oxner cites Beck 1957: 18-23.
38 Oxner "Evolution of the lower courts," p. 61.
39 Oxner "Evolution of the lower courts," p. 62.
40 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 221.
41 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 52: Benjamin Green, John Collier, Charles Morris,
Richard Bulkeley, Thomas Saul, Joseph Gerrish, William Nesbitt, John Dupont, Joseph
Scott, John Creighton, Sebastian Zouberbuhler, Edward Crawley, Charles Proctor,
Benjamin Gerrish.
42 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 61: Malachi Salter, Alexander Grant, Jonathan Binney,
John Burbidge
43 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 52: Charles Morris, John Dupont, Joseph Scott, Joseph
Gerrish, Edward Crawley.
36
37
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In 1752 a public petition was presented to the Governor Cornwallis charging the
Justices of the inferior Court of Common Pleas with partiality. It resulted in additional
magistrates being appointed to the bench, and a recommendation to the government for
the appointment of a Chief Justice.44
The General Court was abolished in 1754 with the appointment of Boston-born
Jonathan Belcher as Chief Justice. Belcher presided alone over a Supreme Court, which
heard cases, initially, only in Halifax.45 This proved inconvenient because of the slow and
inefficient means of overland transportation and, in 1774, a circuit for the Court, to
Horton, Amherst and Lunenburg, was instituted.46
Justices of the Peace who had wide civil and criminal power provided most of the
local law. However, they tended to confine their activities to the more lucrative tasks of
licensing premises and overseeing the poor while sending difficult legal cases to Halifax.
Contemporary portrayals suggest that these justices were often ignorant and
incompetent.47
With the establishment of a Supreme Court, or original and appellate jurisdiction,
the General Court consisting of the Governor and Council ceased to function. The Court
structure also included an Inferior Court of Common Pleas for civil matters and Sessions
Court for criminal cases, although the more serious cases were generally committed to the
Supreme Court.48 Oxner comments that all sat originally with a jury but that, as jurymen
became” reluctant to serve, there was instituted an increasing summary jurisdiction.49 The
Court Structure represented "an honest makeshift":50
After the arrival of Chief Justice Belcher in 1754 the Supreme Court under
Akins, History of Halifax City, pp. 38-40.
The court house was at Northup's Corner, northeast corner of Buckingham and Argyle
Streets.
46 Oxner, "Evolution of the lower courts", p. 65.
47 Oxner, "Evolution of the lower courts", p. 67. She cites, for example, the fictional work T.
C. Haliburton, Sam Slick, the Clock Maker, Halifax, 1836, p. 14. Justice was not always in the
open. Akins reports that all "special matters were discussed and settled" during a "private
meeting of Magistrates in the back office in conjunction with the Clerk of the Peace".
Criminal charges of a "delicate nature", for example, when "private character was likely to
be affected", were investigated behind closed doors without information being made
public "until found necessary for the ends of justice". History of Halifax City, p. 97.
48 Oxner "Evolution of the lower courts," p. 62.
49 Oxner "Evolution of the lower courts," p. 62.
50 Cites Brebner, pp. 235-249.
44
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his presidency supplanted the former General Court, consisting of the
Governor and a quorum of Council. After 1768 it exercised jurisdiction over
all serious criminal cases, and it would have begun going out on circuit in
1775 had the Province not been so disturbed by the Revolution. The former
County Court of Halifax became the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, a
procedure that was followed after 1761 in the other counties. These courts
were almost indistinguishable in many cases from the county Quarter
Sessions conducted by the benches of local Justices of the Peace, each of
whom had the usual independent and joint jurisdiction as well.”
Brebner adds that, “The two assistant judges had to depend on annual votes of the
Assembly for their salaries. The issue was whether the Legislature could remove judges
who should hold office during good behaviour. Under this condition, the Assembly was
willing to make the salaries permanent.”51
Except for Belcher and, "to a much smaller degree the Attorney General and
Solicitor General", no one was formally trained in the law.52 Judges were promoted
Justices of the Peace.53
William Nisbett was appointed Attorney General after the
resignation of Otis Little, who was Commissary of Stores and was suspected of trading in
the supplies for the settlers. Nisbett served in that capacity for 25 years.54 Gibbons
subsequently served. In 1785 Sampson Salter Blowers was appointed A.G. on Gibbons'
resignation to become Chief Justice in Cape Breton. In 1815, R. J. Uniacke was Attorney
General.
By 1760, the Halifax establishment was dominated by a triumvirate of officials,
consisting of Benjamin Green, an original member of Cornwallis' Council and Provincial
Treasurer, Richard Bulkeley, the Provincial Secretary (appointed director and manager of
public works in 1752), and Chief Justice Jonathan Belcher. Other notables included the
Provincial Surveyor, Charles Morris, Assemblyman and leading spokesman for the
German settlement at Lunenburg, Archibald Himshelwood, and the Reverend John
Breynton, Rector of St. Paul’s, and chaplain "to their army, navy, militia, Assembly,
poorhouse, workhouse, and orphan house."55
Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 305.
Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 183.
53 Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 184.
54 T. B,. Akins, "History of Halifax City", Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical; Society,
1892-94, Vol. VIII, Halifax: Morning Herald, 1895, p. 230.
55 S. Thorne, Chairman of Board of Works, to Office of Board of Works, 18 April 1859, in
PANS, RG 1 Series B Vol. 7 Penitentiary, File: "Penitentiary 1855-9".
51
52
10
Belcher, the son of a former Governor of Massachusetts, was described by Brebner
in The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia as "rather more English than the English". Failing
to obtain preferment in England, he was appointed President of the Council after
Lawrence's death in 1760. With his "stilted manners and self-importance", he had reached
beyond his competence, having "already estranged a substantial part of the citizenry by
his obdurate resistance to Massachusetts precedents and practices in the courts."56
Given the increase in settlement and the division of the province into Counties, the
Assembly in 1764 urged that sessions of the Supreme Court be held in townships other
than the capital. They also requested the appointment of two Assistant Judges to the Chief
Justice "on the ground that it `would give much more Satisfaction to the People than the
having a trust of so much importance depend solely upon the opinion and Judgment of
any one man; however capable and upright.'"57 Governor Wilmot appointed John Collier
and Charles Morris, but they had to be supported by local revenue since the Board of
Trade refused to pay their salaries. Belcher believed that these Assistant Judges were
foisted upon him. Consequently, when he drafted their commissions, "he did so very
precisely and narrowly, with the result that he could, and did, ignore his colleagues."58
Although a New Englander, Belcher was aristocratic, the son of a former Governor
of Massachusetts, and imperial. He was invested into office with considerable pomp and
ceremony, and wore the scarlet robes and full-bottomed wig of Westminster. Belcher
aspired to political office, and in 1760 he became President of the Council following the
death of Lawrence. In the following year he was commissioned as Lieutenant Governor,
under first the absentee Governor Henry Ellis and then Montagu Wilmot.
Government and Representative Assembly
The Board of Trade in England was concerned with the legality of the laws in Nova
Scotia, which were being passed, by Governor and Council without a representative
Lower House. Belcher was requested to examine this. Belcher concluded that the
Governor and Council should continue to rule since only one township had a sufficient
number of freeholders. "Furthermore, he volunteered the opinion that there were no
persons in Halifax qualified for the offices of representatives in a lower house of a
S. Thorne, Chairman of Board of Works, to Office of Board of Works, 14 June 1859, in
PANS, RG 1 Series B Vol. 7 Penitentiary, File: "Penitentiary 1855-9".
57 Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 75; cites N.S. D5, 155.
58 70. Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, pp. 75-76.
56
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provincial legislature."59 The Board of Trade then consulted the Attorney General and
Solicitor General at Whitehall who affirmed the view that the laws were not legitimate60
and the Governor was instructed to call an Assembly for the province. Both British and
provincial authorities thought it expedient to keep this ruling secret "until an Assembly
can be convened and an Indemnification passed for such Acts as have been done under
Laws enacted without any proper authority."61 After an unsuccessful appeal to London
and further procrastination from the Governor, an Assembly met first on the 2nd of
October 1758.
The scarcity of constituencies made the question of organizing a legislative
assembly difficult. Consequently, Governor Lawrence resorted, in 1758, to electing 16 of
22 members from the Province at large. Halifax was granted four, Lunenburg two, and
the remaining 16 "at large" were all elected from Halifax.62 On the 12th the Assembly
issued its proclamation inviting settlement.
The structure of government was described in The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia.
The Executive branch consisted of the Governor or Lieutenant Governor and a Council
appointed by the Governor or imposed by London, in the case of patent offices. The
Council consisted of twelve members and had a quorum of five.
Legislation, including the disposal of revenue raised under local laws, was
the business of the General Assembly, composed of Governor the same
Councilors now acting as a Legislative Council, and an elected Assembly.
The Governor could summon, prorogue, and dissolve the Legislature.
The Governor could also veto acts or reserve them for Privy Council decision.63 The
mainstay of the revenue was from the annual parliamentary grant.
Despite the proclamation inviting New England settlement, while "whole
townships gathered for proprietors' or free-holders’ meetings or for elections militia
musters, and fairs",64 the form of local government did not genuinely resemble that of
New England. By the `Act for Preventing Trespasses', "which determined the basic form
of local government in Nova Scotia" for six years after 1759. Under this law, the Grand
MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 57; cites Colonial Office 217/15 Belcher to Pownall, 16
January 1755.
60 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 57; cites Colonial Office, 217/15, Murray and Lloyd to
Board of Trade, 31 March 1755.
61 Lords of Trade to Lawrence, 7 May 1755, Akins (ed.) Public Documents of...Nova Scotia.
62 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 62.
63 Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 181.
64 Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 176.
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Jury of the annual autumn assize was to choose town officers, who were obliged to serve
under penalty of forty-shilling fines.65 This Act was part of the Council's campaign to
prevent New England township government. Although this was a contentious issue
between Council and Assembly -- the latter often reflecting more the interests of the
Halifax group than other freeholders -- by 1763 "the victory over direct town
self-government had been won and won for a century".66
The scarcity of constituencies made the question of organizing a legislative
assembly difficult. Consequently, Governor Lawrence resorted, in 1758, to electing 16 of
22 members from the Province at large, elected on the basis of a forty-shilling freehold.
Halifax was granted four, Lunenburg two, and the remaining 16 "at large" were all elected
from Halifax.67 The quorum was eleven in addition to the speaker. The Assembly met on
the 2nd of October 1758, and on the 12th issues the proclamation inviting settlement.
After two sessions, the first Assembly was dissolved and a new county system of
representation devised. Five counties were each to supply two members (Annapolis,
Cumberland, Halifax, Kings and Lunenburg). Halifax was given four members, and the
townships of Annapolis, Cumberland and Lunenburg were allocated two. Despite this
formal dispersion of seats, "except for occasional brief periods the effective majority in
attendance was made up of Halifax men and of these a majority were members or
hangers-on of the office-holding clique."68 The Assembly met at most twice a year for short
sessions.
Halifax men also usually dominated the Fifth Assembly. Up to 1779 "increased
revenues made Assemblies generous".69 The key issues in the Assembly included "the
campaign for country sheriffs, [and] the attempt to make judges removable from office by
the Legislature".70
These were "characteristic of the New England constitutionalism
widely prevalent, but diffused, in Nova Scotia". In the stead of county sheriffs, the custom
of the older colonies. Nova Scoria had a Provost Marshall whose duties were "exercised
Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 184.
Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 188. The Council in 1763 consisted of, "by
seniority Belcher, Green, Collier, Morris, Bulkeley, J. Gerrish (reinstated by the B. of T.), A.
Grant, E. Crawley, H. Newton, Francklin, Nesbitt (declined the office), and Zouberbuhler"
(p. 188n).
67 MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, p. 62.
68 Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 182.
69 Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 302.
70 Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 303.
65
66
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unpopularly by his deputies".71 An Act replacing the Provost Marshall, John Fenton (who,
when located, was given the 100 pound grant from the Legislature ordered by the Board
of Trade) and establishing county sheriffs was passed in 1781.72
The Assembly met in the wooden Court House at Northup’s Corner, at
Buckingham and Argyle Streets.73 This building was destroyed by fire in 178974 and the
Quarter Session held 19 February 1790 met in the long room of the Golden Bell Inn.75
Subsequently, another wooden building was rented, opposite present Government House,
to serve as a Court House and General Assembly. In 1820, Government House was
completed.76
The first Assembly noted that, since 1751, 7,045 pounds had been collected from the
excise duties on liquor, and there remained a balance of 2,204 pounds. From this money
they authorized construction of a lighthouse at Sambro and also made provisions for the
construction of a workhouse, to be supported from excise duties. Robert MacLeod noted
the irony here, given the belief that intemperance was the main cause of crime and
laziness: "Through the use of these liquors the latter building [the workhouse] became
necessary; thus it was very appropriate to use the money for that purpose."77
According to Atkin: "The functions of His Majesty's Council at this period in our
history embraced all departments of executive authority in the Colony. They were equally
supreme in the control of town affairs as those of the province at large. The magistrates,
though nominally the executive of the town, never acted in any manner of moment
without consulting the Governor in Council. The existence of a corporate body having the
sole control of town affairs would in a great measure deprive them of that supervision
which they no doubt deemed, for the interest of the community, should remain in the
Governor and Council." Accordingly, in 1785 the Council rejected a petition from
merchants and other inhabitants of Halifax for a charter of incorporation.78
Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, pp. 304-305.
Brebner, Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia, p. 305.
73 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 63n.
74 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 97.
75 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 99.
76 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 106.
77 Robert R. McLeod, Markland or Nova Scotia: Its History, Natural Resources and Native
Beauties, Markland Publishing Co., 1903, p. 93.
78 History of Halifax City, pp. 88-89. Cited: Minute of Council, 17 November 1785. present:
Ricjard Bulkeley, Henry Newton, Jonathan Binney, Arthus Goold, Alexander Brymer,
Thomas Cochran and Charles Morris.
71
72
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English Criminal Law
During this first session as well, the Assembly voted to adopt the English "bloody
code" in one fell swoop. According to MacMechan:79
The contemporary English criminal code was adopted bodily, with its long
list of felonies without benefit of clergy and the savage old penalties of the
stocks, the pillory, flogging, branding, cutting off the ears and hanging.
Profane swearing, drunkenness, blackmailing, publication of a lie were
indictable offenses. These acts long remained on the statute-book. As late as
1816 the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia sentenced a man to have his ears cut
off."
In the autumn of 1763 a petty theft occurred from St. Paul's, used by George Hill to
show "the severity of the laws then in force." The grand jury found a bill on 31 October
1763 against John Seymore for stealing "`one surplice ... of the value of forty shillings" from
the church. Seymour pleaded not guilty and a jury was impaneled which found him
guilty. "`The prisoner being afterwards called to the bar, and it being demanded of him if
he had anything to say why sentence of death should not be pronounced against him and
execution awarded thereon according to law, pleaded the benefit of clergy which was
allowed, and the prisoner was burnt in the hand and discharged.'"80
In November 1776, several arrests were made in Cumberland County on the charge
of complicity with parties from Machias, Maine. Among those arrested were Dr. Peter
Clarke, Thomas Falconer, James Avery and Richard John Uniacke, and charged with
treason. "Clarke and Falconer were confined in close custody until the Easter term of 1777,
when they were tried before Chief Justice Morris and Mr. Justice Deschamps. On 18 April,
the trial against Clarke began, with William Nesbitt and jams Brenton, the Attorney and
Solicitor Generals respectively, prosecuting, and Daniel Wood counsel for the defense.
Found guilty, both Clarke and Falconer, who was tried the next day, "before sentence and
execution pleaded the King's pardon, whereupon the Court ordered that the ProvostMarshal keep then in close confinement as convicts until the next term, and that in the
meantime their sentence be respited."
"James Avery and Richard John Uniacke appear to have fared somewhat
MacMechan, "Nova Scotia under English rule", p. 106.
80 George W. Hill, "History of St. Paul's Church", pp. 35-58, Nova Scotia Historical Society,
Vol. 1-4, pp. 45-46. Hill cites "the record of `His Majesty's Supreme Court, Court of Assize
and General Gaol Delivery held at Halifax ... on the 25th day of October, 1763....'"
79
15
differently. On the first day of the Easter Term Nesbitt moves that the court consider the
nature of the security given by James Avery, who hath escaped out of the jail in Halifax;
and on the 22nd of the same month the Solicitor General, James Brenton, moves that the
Provost Marshall assign over the bail bonds in The King vs. Avery and Uniacke, the
defendants not having entered their appearance, and the motion was allowed and entered
accordingly." Uniacke's name appeared as a crown witness, suggesting that he turned
King's evidence; he was not at trial. In 1781, Uniacke's name appears again, this time
taking the oath and signing the roll as a barrister and Attorney. Uniacke became Solicitor
General on 5 April 1782, member from the township of Sackville in 1783, Speaker of the
House in 1789, Attorney general in 1797 and member of Council in 1805.81
In 1800, 11 soldiers were condemned to death "for mutiny and desertion", a
consequence of the Duke's "sternness in military affairs". "On the 7th of August, these
unfortunates were brought out on the Common, dressed in white, with their coffins,
accompanied by the Revd. George Wright, the Garrison Chaplain, and Doctor Burke, the
Roman Catholic clergyman, in the presence of the whole garrison. Eight of them were
reprieved under the gallows, and the three who belonged to the Newfoundland Regiment
were hanged. Public feeling was against the Duke in this affair." Three executions a day
or two after his departure "produced a disagreeable impression" since he had the power to
remit the death sentence until the pleasure of the King were known.82
In 1805, "In October an unfortunate French prisoner named Pierre Paulin was
executed on the common for the murder of a fellow prisoner. The House and the Council
refused to reprieve him."83
In 1809: "The Harbour was again ... the scene of another of those Naval executions,
which were performed with so much severity during the time of war. A mutiny had
occurred, or was supposed to have occurred, on board the Columbine on the 1st August,
of St. Andrews. Four seamen and two marines were found guilty and executed on the
18th September. They were afterwards hung in chains on Meagher's Beach."84
In the autumn "One of the most atrocious cases of piracy and murder on record
occurred ... on the coast to the eastward of Halifax. The Three Sisters was a Halifax vessel
owned by Jonathan and John Tremain and captained by John Stairs "brother of the late
Honourable William Stairs". On its voyage from Gaspe to Halifax, a former owner,
Edward Jordan, booked passage for himself, his wife and four children, for Halifax. On
J. T. B., "Trials for Treason in 1776-7, pp. 110-111 in N.S. Historical Society, Vol. 1-4.
82 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 132.
83 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 138.
84 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 144.
81
16
October 13th, "Jordan having corrupted the mate, Kelly" together secured the arms of the
vessel, shot one man on deck, and then wounded Captain Stairs and the other man
"through the sky-light". According to the account in a Halifax newspaper, Stairs
witnessed Jordan murdering the man on the deck, and then the other wounded man.
Stairs then claimed to have been attacked by Jordan's wife "with a boat hook". Stairs
jumped overboard, to be rescued three hours later by the vessel Eliza Stoddard. The Three
Sisters was captured and brought into Halifax, and H\Jordan and his wife were put on
trial. "The Commission of Judges who sat on this occasion was Lieut.-Gen'1 Sir Geo.
Provost [Lt.-Gov.], Vice Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, Chief Justice Blowers,
Councilors, Butler, Wallace, Breenton, Hill, Uniacke and Morris; Capt. Lloyd, R. N., Capt.
Lord James Townshend, R.N. and Capt. Simpson, R. N., Sir Samuel Hood George,
Provincial Secretary, T. N. Jeffrey, the Collector of Customs." No jury was called under the
commission. Jordan was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, which sentence was
carried into execution on the beach some distance below Fresh Water Bridge, and the body
was afterwards gibbeted on the shore some distance further down. The wife was
acquitted, and a subscription was raised in the town to send her to Ireland." "The court
assembled again a short time after, for the trial of the mate, Kelly, who was convicted, but
afterwards pardoned."85
As Raddall described it: "It was a harsh and cruel time, even in the town itself. Men
were hanged for petty burglary." A woman who stole items valued at five shillings "was
able to escape death sentence only by benefit of clergy. (She was branded in the hand with
the letter T for Thief and thrown in the common jail for two months.)"86 Twelve persons
were hung in Halifax in 1785, one for stealing some potatoes.87 "The public hangman at
this time was a character known as/ 'Tomahawk' who lived in a lonely hut at the north end
of the old blockhouse line, by the Windsor road.... His trade was a busy one in times when
a man could be hanged for stealing a sheep or anything else of a few shillings’ value, and
executions at the foot of George Street were a common public spectacle."88
M. Buckley and Belitham Taylor were sentenced to death "for running away with
the schooner John Miller of Chedabucto and her cargo." This piracy trial was held in
Halifax, 27 August 1785. In that year: "Two men were also hanged ... for robbery
Akins, History of Halifax City, pp. 144-146.
86 Thomas H. Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, (New York: Doubleday, 1965), p. 41.
87 Stan Fitzner, The Development of Social Welfare in Nova Scotia, N.S. Department of Public
Welfare, 1967, p. 11.
88 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 66.
85
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committed to the eastward of Halifax."89
Executions were also performed at other places in the city. Again, according to
Raddall:
In 1790 a woman convicted of murder provided an excellent show for young
and old. The gallows were erected in stony George Street just above the
Parade, where the people could gather to watch the affair; she came from
the jail standing up in a horse dray, which was driven under the gallows
while soldiers and constables kept back the curious throng. The rest was
simple. The hangman placed the noose about her neck; the drayman lashed
his horse, and away went hangman, drayman and cart, leaving their woman
to kick her life out in the breeze from Citadel Hill.90
In addition, hangings took place at Freshwater Beach, below the corner of Tobin and
Pleasant (Barrington) Streets, at Black Rock Beach in Point Pleasant Park, and on the South
Common, near what is now Victoria General Hospital.91 Edward Jordan, the Pirate, was
hanged "some distance below Freshwater Bridge, and the body was afterwards gibbeted
on the shore some distance further down".92 According to Elizabeth Pacey: "Wartime
justice was rough and ready. In 1806 three seamen were tried and executed on board ship
in Halifax harbour, and in the summer of 1809 six mutineers from the Columbine were
hung in chains on Laugher’s Beach. The pirate and murderer Edward Jordan, who had
tried to take the schooner Three Sisters, was gibbeted on the waterfront."93 Peter MacNab
purchased MacNab's Island in 1783 and subsequently passed it to his son (also called
Peter). Without the agreement of the owner, "the Royal navy erected a gibbet on the point
nearest the main shipping channel. Here seamen caught out in any breach of their duties
were strung up. Swinging in full view of crews of ships passing back and forth through
the regular channel into the harbor, the corpses were meant to frighten reluctant of
Akins, History of Halifax City, pp. 87-88.
Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 107.
91 The public fascination with hanging did not abate directly with the abandonment of the
public spectacle. In 1914 the body of the murderer Cook, who had just been hanged for
killing a Syrian peddlar, was put on display at an undertakers. "Men, women, and
children jammed the undertaker's rooms, the last trace of an eighteenth-century custom;
the hanging was no longer public, but one might still peep at its fruit. It was a curious but
understandable survival--the undertakers' parlours were only a few yards from the spot
where the George Street gallows once stood." (Raddall, p. 240).
92 Akins, History of Halifax City, p. 145.
93 Georgian Halifax, Hantsport: Launcelot Press, 1987, pp. 18-19.
89
90
18
belligerent recruits into a meek acceptance of naval discipline at its harshest. So horrific a
hold did these grisly hangings have on the town's inhabitants that the beach was promptly
dubbed `Hangman's Beach' -- hardly an improvement on Mauger's Beach!"94
During the smallpox epidemic in Halifax in 1801-1802, there was no civilian
hospital, although there were both an Army and a Navy Hospital. According to
Cuthbertson, "in the former, one third of the patients were there because of severe
floggings. Flogging was not restricted to soldiers and sailors. Petty thieves were flogged,
drunkards and prostitutes put in stocks before serving time in the workhouse, to which
local magistrates also committed beggars, gamblers, stubborn children, servants and even
orphans, the sick, aged and insane. Order was maintained by the use of the lash. Rum
served as the opiate for the lower classes; to relieve pain the doctors administered
laudanum to those who could afford it."95
Executions also occurred in other Townships. John Fletcher, the late Sheriff of
Cape Breton County, had to petition the House of Assembly to recover some of the costs
of public hangings which he had to bear.96
The House of Assembly began to debate criminal laws more seriously in 1816,
when the House took the Criminal Laws of Nova Scotia into consideration.97
Other serious criminals were dealt with by transportation and exile or were sent
back to England for trial and punishment.98 Just as some Newfoundlanders were
disembarked at North Sydney or Halifax, with little more than the clothes on their backs,
Nova Scotians were sometimes sent to Bermuda and, on occasion, to Australia or Von
Diemen's Land. Up at least until 1829, burglars and pirates were banished to Bermuda,
along with murderers who had their death sentence commuted to transportation for life
following recommendations for mercy.99
With the exception of social exile, whether for specified periods by way of
transportation or more permanent removal through the gallows, most other offenders
were returned to the population after some form of corporal punishment or monetary
Allison Mitcham, Paradise or Purgatory: Island Life in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Hantsport: Lancelot Press, 1986, p. 79.
95 1983, Loyalist Governor, p. 93.
96 Journals of NS House of Assembly, 22 December 1834, p. 743.
97 House of Assembly, 10 February 1816, pp. 9-10.
98 The court house was at Northup's Corner, northeast corner of Buckingham and Argyle
Streets.
99 PANS, Vol. 66, 109, Murray to Maitland, 31 July 1829.
94
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fine.100 Persons convicted of selling liquor without a license were to be fined and were to
sit in the Pillory for one hour, and for a second offence were to receive 20 lashes.101 Part of
the fine was to be paid to the "informer" and half to the treasury where it was used to
support the poor.102 In 1751, of six people who appeared for this licensing offence, three
had their whippings remitted. One man who was lashed was also fined ten pounds but
had five returned to him for informing on himself. In a Halifax case, three thieves were
scalded on their hands in the courthouse and then released.103 In addition to corporal
punishment, an act of 1774, "for punishing Rogues, Vagabonds and other Idle Disorderly
Persons" provided for a sentence of a month’s hard labour.104 Press Gangs were also
commonly employed.
Although most crimes were punished by fines and corporal punishment,
PANS, Vol. 66, 109, Murray to Maitland, 31 July 1829. Fines which were levied could
often not be paid and imprisonment resulted. Jack Coleman was fined five pounds for
having purchased clothing from a soldier and committed to Bridewell for failure to pay.
For the same offense, as well as harbouring a deserter, Mary Irwin, "a woman of light
character", was fined the same amount but, as the Novascotian commented, "having her
pocket like her character, rather light", she was also committed to Bridewell. (Novascotian
VII).
Repeat offenders were also likely to be committed. Some of them were in desperate
straits. Mrs Dunbar, "notwithstanding her many moving appeals and promises of
amendment", was committed to Bridewell, "a place with little novelty for her", for false
pretences: trying to obtain charity as a mother. (Ibid., VI).
Sall Ross, a "black wench" and "an old offender in thievery", was committed to Bridewell
for a fourth time for stealing. In the past, she had not long been detained, however. The
specific conditions of her life had led to some leniency: "The first time her condition was
such that it would have been worse than inhumane to have detained her-- the second she
was suckling twins". The third time she was so ill that she was discharged on her own
recognizance (Ibid.). Some months later, Ross was incarcerated for a fifth time and given a
sentence of three years hard labour (Ibid., X). Again she avoided punishment, this time by
escaping (Ibid., XI, 12 March 1825).
101 Minutes of Council, 23 February 1750.
102 106. Minutes of Council, 3 May 1751.
103 In another case, John Durney, a Schoolmaster, was sentenced in Annapolis Royal to the
Pillory in addition to one month's imprisonment for the attempted rape of a ten year old
girl. (Nova Scotia Royal Gazette, 22 September 1819).
104 N.S. Statutes, 14 and 15 Geo. III, Cap. 5.
100
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provisions were also made for periods of incarceration for such crimes as stealing
livestock, failing to assist magistrates in the execution of their duty, and failing to inform
the clergy of a death in the family.105 The less permanent form of exile was appropriate
only so long as there were institutions in the community to send offenders. The upshot
was that the problem of exile had to be faced within the boundaries of the society. This
was one of the origins of the penitentiary, which served as a means for internal
banishment.106
Although the adoption of the "bloody code" accounts for some of this cruelty, and
the problems of establishing control in a new colonial settlement compelled the authorities
to violence, the presence of the military in Halifax overshadowed all else. It was a
garrison town. Between its founding and the end of the Napoleonic wars, "Halifax had
lived sixty-six years, of which forty-four were years of war."107 It was not uncommon for
the military to outnumber the civilian population by a factor of six to one. This had
several effects. First, recruits did not join the navy and army, but rather the ranks were
filled by press gangs. Military discipline was exceptionally harsh, making the bloody code
look like benevolence. Finally, the military set a dissolute moral tone for the town.
Press gangs were commonly employed in Halifax. They were "armed with
cudgels and cutlasses; resistance meant a broken head and later a taste of the
cat-o'-nine-tails....” The Admiral obtained a press warrant from the Council "who granted
it under pressure from the governor on the ground that the press would rid the town of
idle vagabonds." Raddall argues that the vagabonds knew how to disappear, and
unfortunate youths, fishermen and labourers were picked up. It was usual for the Council
to grant a 24-hour warrant, although some lasted several days. "It was also an
opportunity to empty the town jail. At the close of each assize a naval officer and his gang
were sure to be at the courthouse door, waiting to take their pick of the convicted
felons."108 During the early 1800s, the press gangs became even more active. "The
townsmen armed themselves in self-defense; heads were cracked and sometimes there
Akins (ed.) Public Documents of...Nova Scotia, pp. 595- 598.
In the late nineteenth century, recognition of this internal problem would lead to a
suggestion which has a contemporary flavour: like the causeway to PEI, this idea
resurfaces periodically like a bad case of malaria. If internal exile was the issue, it was
declared, then Canada ought to create a penal colony in the North. The appropriate model
was that implemented by the Czar in Siberia. (These suggestions have never been acted
upon, probably because of the absence of salt deposits on Baffin Island.)
107 Thomas H. Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 157.
108 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 88.
105
106
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was pistol play. The result was incipient mutiny which, when it broke out, was "crushed
without mercy."109
From its inception, military discipline at Halifax was harsh. Governor Cornwallis
instilled discipline into Phillips’ Regiment...by ruthless shootings and hangings".110
Soldiers guilty of serious military crimes were hanged on the Common or shot behind
Citadel Hill.
Flogging was the common punishment, with the offender stripped and
hung up on the triangles--three sergeants' pikes tied together at the top--and
lashed with cat-o'- nine-tails.... A hundred lashes were considered light; for
serious misdeeds a man might suffer as many as a thousand. A frequent
penalty was riding the wooden horse,' with the culprit sitting naked astride
a sharp wooden rail for hours, sometimes with weights attached to his feet,
and sometimes carried along the street from barrack to barrack, jolting
painfully whenever his bearers stumbled on the stony way....
In the fleet, offenders were flogged at the gangway; and for a serious
offense they were flogged about each man-o'-war in the anchorage, going by
boat from ship to ship. Mutineers and seamen convicted of piracy were
hanged at the yardarm in the harbour, and their bodies were dangled in
chains at Black Rock on the Point Pleasant Road, or on the grim gibbets at
Mauger's Beach where the swinging bones remained as warning to
everyone passing in or out of the port.111
With soldiers and sailors of this caliber, facing such extreme penalties, the minority
civilian population was often at the mercy of the military. On the one hand this meant
that a small minority of merchants and officials grew very rich. On the other hand, a
much larger segment of the population also lived off the military.112 In between the two
Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 136.
Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 32.
111 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 51.
112 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North. In his class analysis of Halifax, Raddall writes:
"Halifax was a town with little or no middle class. The crust of its society was the governor
and a coterie of timeserving officials appointed by himself or London, together with a
fawning group of merchants grown rich from army and navy contracts. There was a
handful of lesser merchants and professional people, most of them New Englanders and
adherents of the dissenters' church. The rest were poor fishermen, carpenters, mechanics,
and labourers, with a sprinkling of truck gardeners, loggers, and trappers in the outskirts.
"The census of 1767 shows a little over 3000 people, of whom 302 were English, 52 Scots,
109
110
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barracks flanking the east side of Citadel Hill "gathered an evil slum of grog sellers, pimps,
and prostitutes who battened on the dissolute soldiery."113 With Brunswick Street the
home of the lobster- backs, and Water Street the home of the Tars, "in its earliest days the
heart's core of Halifax became sandwiched between two slums, a situation which long
remained a reproach and a problem to its citizens".114 Raddall described the town as "little
better than a transatlantic almshouse for the London poor".115
Sailors amused themselves ashore "tearing down fences, gates, shutters, and shop
signs and smashing the few feeble lanterns." They beat harpies, destroyed premises, and
ended up fighting the garrison's town guard. Since jails were emptied for crews: "The port
suffered the attentions of groups and sometimes whole ships' companies of toughs and
thugs in naval dress. Rape, theft and assault by His Majesty's seamen were so common as
to become accepted evils of war."116
The military handed out its own punishment for breaches of discipline, but civil
authorities had difficulty maintaining order. Officers were practically above the civil law.
They only murdered in self-defense, while civilians were summarily hanged should an
officer die at their hands, however justified.117 One officer was convicted of "'rape on a
child under the age of ten years’ and sentenced to walk up and down the Grand Parade
for an hour on a cold December day, with a paper on his breast setting forth his crime."118
The soldiers' dissipation reached an apex in 1813. "Day and night drunken redcoats and
seamen reeled about the streets.... In January 1813 there was a brawl on the Market Wharf
between soldiers and civilians.... Five civilians were stabbed, one fatally. A civil court
found one soldier guilty of murder, but once again the townsmen were reminded that a
civilian had no rights. Governor Sherbrooke obtained a royal pardon for the murderer,
and that was that."119
853 Irish, 264 'Germans and other foreigners', 200 Acadians--and no less than 1351
'Americans', most of/whom were from New England (pp.69-70).
113 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 42.
114 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 43.
115 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 33.
116 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 137.
117 For example, Raddall cites the case of the murder of Captain Sweeney by the baker,
Lathum. Despite the circumstances which clearly make it justifiable, Lathum was tried and
hanged. Officers had more rights than civilians (Ibid., p. 65).
118 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 51.
119 Raddall, Halifax: Warden of the North, p. 150.
23