HISTORY OF CRAPAUD

In attempting to delve into the past history of Crapaud, one is at 'once confronted with the fact that, as far back as 1842, the name Crapaud applied to the anchorage off the mouth of Brocklesby River, and between the eastern part of Tryon Shoals and the land.

Brocklesby River is commonly called Westmoreland River. its source being a spring in Inkerman. It flows past Leard’s Mill, and, at Hall’s Bridge, another stream, which comes past Stewart’s Mill, unites with it and finally empties into the harbor.

Brocklesby Head is the geographical name of what is locally called .McIvor’s Point.

The name, Crapaud, which means “frog,” comes from the French :name for Brocklesby river —- r1v1ere aux Crapaud, or “river of frogs.”

7 Holland’s map of 1765, refers to this section as Brocklesby Cove. ll] tire Prince Edward Island Register of 1826, it is called Westmoreland ar ur.

In 1767, Lot 29 fell, by ballot, to Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, Comamnder—in-chief of the fleet which co~operated with Wolfe in the siege of Quebec. R. Huck Saunders, M.D., a military surgeon, was a brother of Sir Charles Saunders. He had two daughters, Jane and Anne, who became the co-heirs’ of Sir Charles Saunders.

Lot 29 came to the ‘Westmoreland family in 1800 by the marriage of John Fane, 10th. Earl of Westmorland, to Jane Saunders. The doctor’s other daughter, Anne, married, in 1796, Robert Dundas, second Viscount Melville, who received a portion of the lot with his wife. So the history of these three settlements seems to interlock.

In 1817, the ship “Valiant,” with Captain Izzard in charge, left Hull, England, with 196 passengers, most of them emigrant families from York and Lincoln Counties. After a voyage of seventy-three days they landed in Charlottetown.

Some years ago two different accounts were published in The Guardian newspaper, with reference to the voyage of the “Valiant.”

One article by the late Rev. Matthew Smith, son of Christopher Smith, gives the sailing date as March 22, 1817, and the duration of the voyage as seventy-three days. This would make the date of landing June 3.

A second letter in The Guardian of March 3, 1898, gave Mrs. Wil- liam Court’s (nee Jane Bell) account of the voyage. This account appears to have been taken from an old family record in the possession of Mrs. Thomas Wiggington, at Primrose, P. E. I., in the handwriting of one of the original voyagers, which states that George Wigginton landed on Prince Edward Island on June 28, 1817., This would appear to be correct.

One death occurred on the voyage 4 a child of Christopher Smith, who died and was buried at sea. Mr. Cristopher Cross read the burial

serVIce.

These people settled in many parts of the Island. Those who came to Crapaud were: Christopher Smith and family; William Hodgson and family; George Wigginton and Wife; Thomas Carr, single; “William Pearson; Joseph Trowsdale and family; Thomas Best and family; and William Lowther and family.

The following names would appear to be prominent among the early settlers of Crapaud: Rogerson, McVittie, Reid, Stordy, Nicholson,

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