IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Not many Loyalists found their way to Prince Edward Island, or, as it was
called at the time of the American Revolution, the Island of St John.
Probably there were not many more than six hundred on the island at any
one time. But the story of these immigrants forms a chapter in itself.
Elsewhere the refugees were well and loyally treated. In Nova Scotia and
Quebec the English officials strove to the best of their ability, which
was perhaps not always great, to make provision for them. But in Prince
Edward Island they were the victims of treachery and duplicity.
Prince Edward Island was in 1783 owned by a number of large landed
proprietors. When it became known that the British government intended
to settle the Loyalists in Nova Scotia, these proprietors presented a
petition to Lord North, declaring their desire to afford asylum to such
as would settle on the island. To this end they offered to resign certain
of their lands for colonization, on condition that the government abated
the quit-rents. This petition was favourably received by the government,
and a proclamation was issued promising lands to settlers in Prince
Edward Island on terms similar to those granted to settlers in Nova
Scotia and Quebec.
Encouraged by the liberal terms held forth, a number of Loyalists went to
the island direct from New York, and a number went later from Shelburne,
disappointed by the prospects there. In June 1784 a muster of Loyalists
on the island was taken, which showed a total of about three hundred and
eighty persons, and during the remainder of the year a couple of hundred
went from Shelburne. At the end of 1784, therefore, it is safe to assume
that there were nearly six hundred on the island, or about one-fifth of
the total population.
These refugees found great difficulty in obtaining the grants of land
promised to them. They were allowed to take up their residence on certain
lands, being assured that their titles were secure; and then, after they
had cleared the lands, erected buildings, planted orchards, and made
other improvements, they were told that their titles lacked validity,
and they were forced to move. Written title-deeds were withheld on every
possible pretext, and when they were granted they were found to contain
onerous conditions out of harmony with the promises made. The object of
the proprietors, in inflicting these persecutions, seems to have been to
force the settlers to become tenants instead of freeholders. Even Colonel
Edmund Fanning, the Loyalist lieutenant-governor, was implicated in this
conspiracy. Fanning was one of the proprietors in Township No. 50. The
settlers in this township, being unable to obtain their grants, resolved
to send a remonstrance to the British government, and chose as their
representative one of their number who had known Lord Cornwallis during
the war, hoping through him to obtain redress. This agent was on the
point of leaving for England, when news of his intention reached Colonel
Fanning. The ensuing result was as prompt as it was significant: within a
week afterwards nearly all the Loyalists in Township No. 50 had obtained
their grants.
Others, however, did not have friends in high places, and were unable
to obtain redress. The minutes of council which contained the records
of many of the allotments were not entered in the regular Council Book,
but were kept on loose sheets; and thus the unfortunate settlers were
not able to prove by the Council Book that their lands had been allotted
them. When the rough minutes were discovered years later, they were found
to bear evidence, in erasures and the use of different inks, of having
been tampered with.
For seventy-five years the Loyalists continued to agitate for justice.
As early as 1790 the island legislature passed an act empowering the
governor to give grants to those who had not yet received them from the
proprietors. But this measure did not entirely redress the grievances,
and after a lapse of fifty years a petition of the descendants of the
Loyalists led to further action in the matter. In 1840 a bill was passed
by the House of Assembly granting relief to the Loyalists, but was
thrown out by the Legislative Council. As late as 1860 the question was
still troubling the island politics. In that year a land commission was
appointed, which reported that there were Loyalists who still had claims
on the local government, and recommended that free grants should be made
to such as could prove that their fathers had been attracted to the
island under promises which had never been fulfilled.
Such is the unlovely story of how the Loyalists were persecuted in the
Island of St John, under the British flag.