Anon. (1771) Letter, published anonymously in The Scots Magazine (October 1771) and in the Belfast News Letter (8 November 1771).

The following extract comes from a letter that was published anonymous/y in both The Scots Magazine and the Belfast News Letter in October and November 7771. The only clue to the author found in the letter itself is the reference to his having previously farmed in Berkshire, England. However, this may be intended to deceive: though there had been immigration to Prince Edward island from Scotland and the north of ire/and by 17 7 7, there had been no evident immigration from England by that date {other than perhaps some of the Charlottetown officia/doml. Its publication in the Belfast News Letter arouses the suspicion that the letter may have been connected with Thomas DesBrisay, the island’s absentee lieutenant-governor and the proprietor of three townships, who was at that time trying to attract tenants for his island property from the north of Ireland. As Dickson points out, it may not have been a co—incidence that DesBrisay was in Dublin at the time of the publication of the letter in the Belfast News Letter. The rosy picture painted of the island ’8 natural productiveness was clearly aimed at attracting prospective immigrants to the island.

REFERENCES:

Dickson, R. J. (1966) Ulster Emigration to Colonial America, 1778—1775. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. pp. 152— 64.

Lawson, J. P. (1994) Early Scottish settlement on Prince Edward Island. The Princetown pioneers, 1769-1771. Scottish Genealogist, XLI, p. 123.

”Extract of letter from the Island of St. John, in the gulf of St. Lawrence, dated Aug. 27.”

This country is now in high beauty. I have saved enough [hay] for my winter-flock, as good as any I have ever had in Berkshire. My cattle thrive apace.

Game and Fish we have for very little trouble; the sea all around is alive with them. Abundance map/e sugar. of partridges and small hares. We have very good sugar for common use, from the

maple tree; and admirable beer from the spruce. These trees are plenty on every part of the Island.

[Be/fast News Letter, 8 November 1771]