Morris, Charles Jnr. (1769) Letter (with attached plan of the eastern part of Lot 13) (dated 12 January 
     
     1769) addressed to John Butler, Agent for John Pownal, Esq., proprietor of Lot 13. [Unpublished Seymour 
     
     of Ragley Collection, Warwick County Record Office, CR 114A/562 & 567. Microfilm copy in P.E.l. PARO, 
     
     Acc. 3485/1 .1 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     This extract is taken from a letter of Charles Morris Junior to the English agent of John Pownal Esq., the Secretary 
     
     of the Lords of Trade, the original grantee of Lot 73 who had acquired the township in the lottery of 7 76 7. Charles 
     
     Morris Jnr (b. 1737, d. 7802), was the son and assistant to Charles Morris Snr, Nova Scotia’s first Surveyor 
     
     General, and in 1776 he succeeded his father in that office. He had been born and brought up in Massachusetts 
     
     but had apparently been living in Nova Scotia since 1760. It was presumably while he was a member of the 
     
     surveying party sent from Halifax in 7768 to lay out the three county towns on the sites stipulated in Holland ’3 
     
     report, that he crossed Malpeque Bay to visit Lot 13. Since the map he produced is of a high level of accuracy, 
     
     showing not only the coastline but also the boundary between the forest and the land cleared by the Acadians who 
     
     had left ten years before, he must have spent some days on the lot. In his letter to John Butler he writes: ”I woud 
     
     inform you that when l was there last Summer/ took an oppertunity to make a very particular and Accurate Survey 
     
     of the Shores of it, and made some General Observations on the Land and improvements of all that part of the Lott 
     
     bounded on Richmond Bay, Good Wood River [i.e. Trout River] and Village Cove, [i.e. the small cove into which flow 
     
     the present Crooked, Browns and Mill Creeks] a Plan of which lnow enclose”. His knowledge of the forest is thus 
     
     applicable only to that part of the Lot bounding the Malpeque Bay shoreline and the Trout River — an area that can 
     
     be precisely delineated from his plan. It is regrettable that it is simply a list of the most prominent tree species. 
     
    
   
   
    
     REFERENCES: 
     
    

    
     Chard, D. F. (1983) Morris, Charles. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, V: 607-8. 
     
    

    
     Clark, A. H. (1959) Three Centuries and the Island. University of Toronto Press, Toronto. p. 264. 
     
    

    
     Greenhill, B. & Giffard, A. (1965) Westcountrymen in Prince Edward’s ls/e. University of Toronto Press, pp. 43-44. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     The Land in general is of a red Loam The cleared Upland in general is intirely worn 
     
     out and produces little Else but weeds, will never be of any Value or Profit till well 
     
     manured Except the Plot where the Mass House stands which is some of the best 
     
     grass Land I saw anywhere The uncleared lands in general are well Cloath'd with 
     
     Timber Trees naturall to these northern Colonies, such as Beach, Black, white and 
     
     Yellow Birch, Maple, some Oak, Pine, Spruce, and Fir. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Tree sp ecies. 
     
    
   
   
    
     By the appearance of the improvements made by the French I immagine there might 
     
     have been on this Lott about twenty Families settled 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
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