advertised twenty-five acres and a mill stream at New London in the same year. At that time there were no mills nearer than Rustico to the east and Princetown to the west. The Haszards had some early connection with the place as Thomas Haszard was mak- ing up a list of Loyalists there as early as 1792. The story of P.E.I. Loyalists is extremely obscure, but it would seem that the New London Bernard and Cousins families belonged to that steadfast company. In 1826 William Marks was offering Richmond Hill farm for sale on the north shore of the South West River. James Pidgeon of Park Corner, New London, was trying to collect from his debtors in 1823 as he intended to leave the Island after only three years’ residence. He finally stayed and his descendants are there to the present day.
The rhythm of life went on. Anthony and David Pickering died in 1823; Ann, wife of James Campbell, died in 1824; Hugh and William, sons of William McKay, died of smallpox in 1825; William McKay, J .P., died in 1826. James Townsend, J .P., a former member of the Assembly, who had come out as a child with his father on the Elizabeth in 1775 died in 1827. As a Justice of the Peace he had performed a marriage ceremony in 1826 between Lieutenant Edward Holland and Mrs. Caroline McKay, relict of Donald McKay. .
As noted earlier, the eastern half of Lot 20 had fallen to Thomas Bassett in 1768. At his death the property passed to his wife Jane, and then to his daughter Penelope who married Robert William Cundall and die-d in 1823. When Cundall came to the Island is not exactly known but in 1827 he was urging his tenants to pay their outstanding rents to Mr. Hodgson, probably his agent, in Charlottetown. A large depression in a field to the right of a short road leading to Cousins’ shore today marks the site of the Cundall house. Robert Cundall died at the age of 49, March 3, 1828, leaving a family of six children, the eldest of whom, William, came out from England in 1827 to manage the property. In the spring of 1831, Thomas, thirteen-year-old son of Robert Cundall, was drowned in the pond at Park Corner, and was buried near his father in the cemetery on Yankee Hill where their headstone still remains. In September, 1836. William Cundall married Sarah Louisa Haszard, daughter of William Haszard of Bellevue. The Cundalls lived at Park Corner until they moved to Charlottetown. It is certain that they aided in building the first St. Thomas’s church.
One of the most active residents of New London in the 1820’s and early 1830’s was Thomas Billing, a young shipowner and merchant who came from Devonport, England. Up to 1828, when Thomas Billing Sr. died, father and son owned jointly the Restitu- tion, a brig of 317 tons. Their brig, the New Bideford, probably one of the early products of the Burnard and Chanter shipyard, sailed between Plymouth and New London. Other ships which Thomas Billing owned and which traded with the West Indies and southern England were Amaryllis, Breakwater, Amyntas, Pyrrha and Theresa.
The last ship bore the name of Billing’s wife, Theresa, sister
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