CHARLOTTETOWN

-T/zroug/1 7716 Years. . .

By FRANK MacKINNON, Ph. D.

Prince Edward Island was called St. John’s Island after it was taken over by the British in 1763 and its principal settle— ment was named Charlotte—Town after Queen Charlotte, wife of King George the Third. The place could boast only two or three families, but then the population of the whole colony was little more than 250 people. When the King’s surveyor, Captain Samuel Holland, surveyed the colony in 1764 he recommended that Charlotte-Town be the Capital because “as this side of the Island cannot have a fishery it may probably be thought expedient to indulge it with some particular privileges”.

When the town was laid out it comprised 270 acres of building lots and 565 acres for a common. The lots were spread out and amply provided with pasture because, said an early official, “every man must be something of a farmer to supply his family with milk, butter, roots and all other vege— tables, until there be a market, which we cannot expect will be the case soon”. The common, now the area north of Euston Street, was set aside to provide for future expansion, and streets were laid out, most of them called after British royalty and colonial officials. The land was dry and level and on a gentle slope with a southern exposure, and. water was easily secured from convenient wells.

There were very few houses at first, and, until the land was tilled, food was scarce. The typical home was, says an early report, “a dwelling—house, fifty—six by twenty—six, one storey, with a pitched roof shingled and clap-boarded, and filled in between with stone laid in rough mortar, two stacks of chimneys, with two ovens and six fire—places, two parlours,

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