Catholic clergyman to do so as far as the records show. Eagleson reported on his journey as follows to the Society for the Propa— gation of the Gospel (S.P.G.) :

On the 7th of Sept’r I set out for the Island & arrived at Charlotte Town the day following, where I met with a most kind and Friendly recep’n from His Excellency the Gov’r as also f’m the Chief Judge and Att’ry Gen’l & c. I tarried there three weeks, and read prayers and preached every Sunday. The first Sunday I baptized in Church His Excel’y’s two children, the Eldest, a son of about three Years of age, whom he named St. John; the other, a Daughter which he called Charlotte. The next Sunday I Baptized a Child of the Attry General’s, and the following, one of the Hon’ble George Burns. I then visited St. Peter’s, Stanhope, Traceady & Malpeck or Princetown, at which places I read prayers & preached and also baptized 29 chil- dren and Married one couple.

It appears probable that Eagleson, who seems to have visited the Island again in 1774, was the first to hold services in the vicin- ity of the newly established port of New London on Grenville Bay, acoligimercial venture begun not far from Princetown by Robert

ar .

Clark, a London merchant, owned Lots 49 and 21. At first he was associated with Robert Campbell in the ownership of Lot 21, but he appears as sole proprietor on a 17 75 map. In 1773 he brought out a company of emigrants, and formed on the west side of the harbour a settlement which he named New London. This name completely ousted Grenville (which, however, lingers on as Gran- ville) and later was applied generally to the region surrounding the bay. Today the New London post office has moved over the river to Clifton, but originally the name was applied to Clark’s little colony at the harbour entrance. Elizabethtown appears on early maps as a designation for the community which extends today from

French River to Springbrook.

Governor Patterson Visited New London in the year of its founding, when the immigrant ship’s merchandise was lying on the open beach covered with sailcloth. Clark was a man of religious convictions, first a Methodist and then a Quaker, and he told the Governor that it was a Vision which had occasioned his coming to the Island. The hard-headed Patterson noted scornfully that Clark “really thought himself a second Penn and he believed he would transmit as great a name to posterity.” Although Clark went back to England in the autumn of 1773 and never returned to New Lon- don yet he continued for some years to invest heavily in the little establishment. Thomas Curtis, who came out on Clark’s snow-rig- ged brig Elizabeth on its last ill-fated voyage in 1775, has left a vivid account of the settlement in its primitive pioneer state when it consisted of sixteen log houses containing a population of forty people. A further description of life at New London is given in the diary of Benjamin Chappell who endured the privations of the set- tlement for six years before moving to Charlottetown.

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