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.