EARLY SETTLEMENT AND SETTLERS

Captain Samuel Holland was commissioned to make a survey of St. John's Island, presently known as Prince Edward Island, in the year 1763. At this time, Britain had just received possession of the land from France. The British knowledge of the area north of their American Colonies was very little, to say the least. So, Lord Hillsborough, Commissioner of Trade, was summoned to discover the unknown land now in their possession. The land became British territory only after the French lost its hold on the area with the fall of Louisbourg in 1758. Although several surveys had been done of the area previously, there were many inaccuracies and rough estimates, so they called upon King George III to commission a new survey of the area. With the agreement of King George and a recommendation from the Duke of Richmond, Samuel Holland began his survey of the Island in 1764. Holland led a group of three survey men, with the assistance of Lieutenant Robinson to the Island and commenced to map out the area with extreme accuracy. The five explorers, because of their earlier experience on the battlefields, came prepared for the extreme weather conditions of this new land. Unfortunately, the harsh long winter gave them no relief from the cold and bitter frost, and one of the group met his doom. As the remaining men continued with their work, they explored the Island by land and by ice and in the late spring by boat. Throughout each day, they kept a record of the area they surveyed and the boundaries within which they were located. For the area now known as Lot 57, he noted the land and woods to be of very good quality, consisting of 450 acres of cleared land out of the 20,000 acre lot. He also remarked it would be excellent for a farming settlement but ill situated for fishing, even though it bordered on the great Bay of Hillsborough and Orwell Bay on the west. As for settlement in the area, there was very little; it consisted of twelve houses and a church.1

"The Selkirk Pioneers were a staunch and God-fearing race,

and patiently planned for the day when they should have a church of their own and a Gaelic Minister. Worship was held in

Taken from PAC-0617 c.1765 Lot 57

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