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ON the 6th of July,
1771, it was resolved by the Council “that the lands lying between the
Township of Yarmouth and Barrington be erected into a Township, and to
be called by the name of “argyle.”
This was just ten years after the settlement of Yarmouth, and the
inhabitants being comparatively few, the circumstances had not demanded
any formal designation of the district. But frequent grants and
continuous settling in an undefined territory was troublesome, hence the
action of the Council. Land grants in Argyle to persons nonresident,
were frequent and important. Already Lieut. Ranald McKinnon’s settlement
and grant have been detailed. Subsequently, on September 6th, 1773,
grants were made to Edmund qnd Joseph Crawley, of 1000 acres, on the
peninsula called Nonparison. And on the same date, a grant of 1000 to
John Morris, consisting of the whole Island, now known as Morris’s
Island. In October, 1765, some of the most beautiful and valuable lands
on the Tusket River had been granted, amounting, in the aggregate, to
10,000 acres, to Governor Wilmot and other members of his family; and
about the same time, 2000 acres to the Rev. John Breynton; all of whom
were non-residents. I trace much of the subsequent stagnation of the
Township of Argyle to this fact, that its best lands were owned by
persons who never saw them, and who were in no way concerned about their
improvement, further than the question what they would bring.
Already we have seen that as early as 1763, John Frost, and fifteen
other heads of families, had settled at Argyle. Here those sixteen,
together with seven others, who had subsequently arrived, settled,
without any distinct tenure, until the 22nd of June, 1771, when they
presented a memorial to the Council, setting forth “That they had
settled themselves, in virtue of Governor Lawrence’s proclamation, and
had there cultivated lands; therefore, praying that they may have a
grant of the said lands, amounting to two thousand acres, and three
small islands containing one hundred and twenty acres.” This petition
was granted on July the 10th of the same year.
Prominent amongst the petitioners are the well-known names of Frost,
Goodwik, Nickerson, and Spinney,—all of whom were from New England. The
last named family, that of John Spinney, who came from Portsmouth, with
seven sons* is as striking an example as can Anywhere be found of
numerical increase. I am informed, by an old and respectable member of
the family, that John Spinney, who came to Abuptic in 1762, is the
ancestor of probably five hundred living descendants, about half of whom
are in the County.
Similarly wide spread is the family of Frost, two members of which, John
Frost, Esq., and Captain Jeremiah, were prominent men in their day.
John,- besides being a preacher, was also a magistrate,—and in neither
capacity did he escape without serious trouble. On the 8th of July,
1775, the complaint of Ranald McKinnon,- J. P. for Queen’s County, was
read before the Council, setting forth that “He had been assaulted and
knocked down by John and Hugh Nickerson, and that on complaint to Mr.
Frost, one of the Justices of the Peace, for redress, he could obtain no
other answer, than that the said Nickerson had already lodged a
complaint against the said McKinnon. It was ordered that a copy of the
complaint he sent to the said Frost, and that he be called on to answer
it. The answer confesses He had found the offenders and acknowledges his
ignorance of the- due method of proceeding. The Council Resolved that
the said Mr. Frost should be suspended from the office of Justice of the
Peace, until further order.” As he did exercise his office afterwards,
it is evident he was reinstated. But he got into much more serious
trouble. In the month of August, 1775, the Militia having been called
out, in consequence of the attitude of affairs in the New England
States, John Frost, Esq., and Captain Jeremiah Frost, were complained of
by Benoni D’Entremont, and other French Acadians, of harassing them.
Joseph Crawley appeared before the Council, substantiated the charges,
and proceeded to prefer others to the effect—
That the said Captain had used arguments to seduce the Acadians from
their duty, hy telling them they would find the advantage of taking part
with the Americans.”
And further declared that—
“Justice Frost, in one of his puhlic discourses, expressed his hopes and
wishes that the British forces in America might be returned to England
confuted and confused.”
The result was the opinion of the Council—
“That Jeremiah Frost, Captain of the Militia in Argyle, he dismissed
from any command in said Militia, and from any other employment under
Government.”
The Governor, having considered the state of the Militia in the Township
of Argyle, and the disposition of the New England people and the
Acadians there, and the necessity of putting them under a command of a
proper .and well qualified person, proposed that
“Lieut. McKinnon, who had been long resident there, and well acquainted
with the inhabitants, and haying already a command in the Militia there,
do take on him the command of all the Militia in the County of Queens,
and of the French Canadians in the County of Clare, with the rank of
Colonel of Militia. And, in order to put the Militia of that County on a
proper footing, especially as from the declaration of Mr. Joseph Crawley
it appears that pains had been taken by ill-minded persons to seduce the
French Acadians from their allegiance to the King.”
The Governor further proposed—
“That Mr. McKinnon do, without loss of time, proceed to Argyle with
twenty men of the recruits now raising here for the King’s service, and
he furnished, with four barrels of gunpowder and ball in proportion, to
be by him accounted for.”
And the Governor acquainted the Council—
“That he thought it would ha proper to recommend Mr. McKinnon to the
General, for the rank of Captain in the army.”
All of which was done.
Leaving the Argyle settlement, we must retrace our steps once more in
point of time to 1767. In that year many of the
FRENCH ACADIANS,
who had been carried away, returned to Nova Scotia, from which they had
been banished. Their s was certainly a hard lot. Distrusted hy the
English, those of them who did not seek refuge in France, who were
carried to the States, were finally driven from thence as Papists. It
will be remembered that the D’Entremonts, who did not flee to their
ancestral home, were carried to Primbury and Walpole, in Mass. They came
back in the year mentioned above, after about ten years’ exile. And on
the 5th of October, eighteen families, indiscriminately described as
“Acadians,” having applied for land whereon to settle, it was advised
“that on their taking the oath of allegiance, land should be assigned to
them in the neighbourhood of Barrington and Yarmouth.” Some of those
families settled finally at Pubnico, and others at Eel Brook. The names
will show at a glance that all were not Acadians; hut other
circumstances indicate that although some of them were purely English in
descent, they were probably hound together by the ties of a common
faith. As co-religionists they were in search of a home where they could
enjoy their religion free and unmolested. On the 6th of November, 1771,
their request for land was granted. Then upwards of 2000 acres were
granted to Philip Brown, Walter Larkin, Benjamin Sealy, Lange Amereau,
Charles Belliveau, Ahel Duon, Peletiah Goodwin, Joseph, Paul, and Benoni
D’Entremont. There is no doubt hut that, although for the more part the
descendants of the Larkins and other families are now Protestant, they
were at first apparently bound to the French Acadians by religious
considerations. There are records of an early date of members of their
families having been baptised, confirmed, married, and buried as Roman
Catholics. The families of Hines, Larkins, Murphy, and' Lennox, were
originally of Irish extraction. Nearly opposite the house of Mr.
Manasseh Larkin, at the head of the river, stood the primitive Acadian
Chapel and Presbytery, and nearer the shore, on a beautiful knoll, the
traditional last resting place of the pre-expulsion Acadians is still
pointed out: but there is no trace left of its former sacred character,
and it is now used as a fish-curing ground.
On the property of Mr. Reuben Larkins is the first English burial
ground, which was used from about 1767. It lies in a most ruinous and
decayed condition, without any marks of loving care. Briars and thorns
cover the old tombstones, many of which have fallen and lie broken and
neglected.
Once more then we find the d’Entremont family occupying their ancestral
domain. They settled at Pub-nico Point, on the west side of the harbour.
There was plenty of fowl, moose, and fish; and all the water and land
convenience they desired. The story of their return is well told by the
Cure Goudot:—
“They landed on the shores of Nova Scotia. One of the D’Entremonts
reached Halifax, and the Governour who knew at least from history, the
family of the D’Entremonte, asked him where he and his family were
going? 'To Canada to enjoy our religion,’ replied he. ‘Stay here,’ said
the Governor, establish yourselves upon whatever part of the coast you
please, and I promise to supply you once a year with a priest,’ They
chose Pobomkon, which had belonged to their ancestors: and the Governor
faithful to his word, sent them every year a Canadian Priest, to whom
the English Government granted £60 per annum.”
The following is the genealogical table of the D’Entremont family, so
far as it applies to the fifth generation of those who are now in this
County. The correctness of it is certified by the French historian E.
Rameau, and is taken from a paper in his handwriting left by him in the
Parish Register of Pubnico: I have left out the collateral branches.
Philippe was he who
arrived in 1691, as first Baron of Pobomcon, and his sons Abraham,
Philippe, and Jacques— the last of whom only is here named,—were married
to the daughters of De La Tour. One or two persons still living,
recollect having seen the old men Paul and Benoni. The latter was the
first French Acadian magistrate in the Province; an office to which he
was appointed about 1810; and he was also a Judge in the Inferior Court
of Common Pleas. His son Simon, who is the oldest living member of that
family, was the second magistrate, the first French member of Assembly;
and also the first French collector of Customs.
The French settlement which is known as TUSKET RIVER, below the village,
was settled about 1766, immediately after Banald McKinnon vacated his
first residence on Amirault’s Hill for his second home .at Argyle, by
Jacques Amirau (corrupted from Amirault into other forms, as Amero and
even Mero), Joseph Moulaison, Jean Pierre Muis and Charles Doueette The
district known as EEL BROOK, (Indian Ooptomagogin, “the place for
eels,”) was settled, as was also the Wedge, about the same time as
Pubnico. The same causes operated in both cases. Eel Brook was taken
possession of in 1767 by seven Acadians, none of whom had been deported.
They were Jean Bourque, Dominique Pothier, Joseph Babin, Pierre Surette,
Pierre Muis, Louis Muis, and Pierre LeBlanc;—the last named for many
years having for the more part, in common with other Acadian families,
adopted the English form of their name.
Dominique Pothier is said to have been one of twenty-nine, who escaped
from a prison in Port Royal, by making a hole with their pocket knives,
under the prison floor, to the outside of the prison court, a distance
of twelve yards.
THE WEDGE
(Indian “Nizigouziack,” and “Olsegon”) was likewise settled by returning
Acadians in 1767. They were originally four in number, viz: Eustace
Corporon, Pierre Robicheau, Jean Doucette and Pierre Inard. Eustace
Corporon was brought back from Boston, where he and others had been
carried, about the year 1758, to pilot a vessel looking after Acadians,
■ chiefly in the Tusket and Argyle Rivers, with which he was well
acquainted. They explored the Tusket, on the banks of which Corporon saw
Indians, who however would not injure him. They left the Tusket for the
Abuptic, and while lying at the mouth of the river, a boat’s crew landed
on a marsh, on which were some sheep; the Indians were waiting ready for
them. There were eight men left dead on the marsh; and Corporon took to
the woods with the Indians. The French Acadian is now a most important
element in this County; and if the numerical increase continues for a
hundred years in the same ratio as it has during the past century, and
the English ratio be no greater, they will be more numerous than the
English. It is therefore of the first magnitude, that their. education
should be of such a kind as to fit them, as a whole, to fill that
position well which Providence seems to design for them. General
information is much needed among them; and particularly a fair,
impartial account of their own history in this Province. As an
illustration of this, one of the most intelligent Acadians, a gentleman
and a magistrate, writing to me as late a£ 1872, says, with the greatest
simplicity and child-like confidence in the accuracy of his conviction,
that “all the French were scattered from the country because they would
not take the oath of abjuration against their own Homan Catholic
religion”. To the leisured few, a drive on either side of the Pubnico
harbour is very pleasant, and will amply repay the tourist. The shores
are varied by numerous coves, as pleasing to the eye as they are
convenient to the inhabitants. In the fruitful and cultivated fields and
cleared lands which skirt the shores, and which are backed by the deeper
woods, stand numerous and comfortable Acadian homesteads. Time, which
tries all, and also which cures all, has given the Acadian ample
revenge. For, where in 1775 there could, at the best, have been, but a
very few log huts of the rudest kind; when comforts were at once few and
uncertain, and the guides of their consciences hostile to England and
their own interests, there are now nearly two hundred substantial, well
built houses, for the more part well furnished with all manner of useful
and ornamental effects; the people happy and contented, and conspicuous
only for every feeling of loyalty and attachment to the British throne. |
