Lawson, David. (post 1777) A Coppy of the Misfortunes / met with since my landing the 8th of June 7 7 70. [From a typescript in P. E. I. PARO (2663/1—31) which has been ’transcribed from a xerox of the original’ by A. B. W. MacEwan — the original is in the Montgomery papers in the Scottish Record Office (SRO GD 293/2/79/5ll.

David Lawson (b. about 7 720, d. after 7803/ was a Perthshire flax farmer who was contracted by James Montgomery, the lord advocate for Scotland and the owner of a number of townships on the island, to found and manage a farming operation on Lot 34. Lawson arrived on the island in June 7770 on board the Falmouth and with a party of about forty indentured servants sent by Montgomery he founded a settlement at Stanhope. Some years later, certain/y after 7777, and probably after 1787, when Lawson was facing legal action from Montgomery over the settlement of debts and accounts, he wrote in his defence a record of the tribulations of his first seven years on the island. In it he makes two passing references to the forest: one about the burning of a grist mill due to a forest fire spreading, the other concerning a lumbering accident. The fact that two grist mills on the same site had apparently burned in succession on account of fires spreading from the forest, presumably fires used in the process of forest clearance by his own settlers, indicates the danger from such — the mills burned in I 775 and 7776. (An undated ear/y map IPARO: 0, 73 7E) shows a mill near the mouth of what is now Bells Creek.) In his record of the fatal lumbering accident Lawson does not state where it occurred — were it not for an entry in the diary of William Drummond, another member of the Falmouth party, we would never have known that the lethal pine was felled not at Stanhope but at Three Rivers, where Montgomery was simultaneously sponsoring a second settlement and commercial venture on Lot 59 which included the shipping of timber to the United Kingdom. Drummond’s diary reads: ”Aug. 2nd [7 770] — This day at Three Rivers a log of wood rolling down a steep place struck William M. Swan in the back [a mis-reading, more likely: William McEwan] of which he died in five hours after and the day fol/o wing was buried with decency there”. Other entries in Drummond’s diary indicate that Lawson himself was at Three Rivers between 20 July and 25 August 1770.

REFERENCES:

Weale, D. (1977) (ed.) Diary of William Drummond. The Island Magazine, No. 2: pp. 28-31. [According to P. E.|. PARO 2663/1—31 , the earliest known copy of the diary is a typescript "bound into a note—book collection in 1932" in the New Cannan Historical Society, New Canaan, Connecticut and titled ’An Ocean Voyage in 7770. Remarks and Observations by Mr. William Drummond in his voyage from Cowden to St. Johns Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in North America’.)

MacEwan, A. B. W. (1981) The Falmouth Passengers. The Island Magazine, No. 10: pp. 12—19.

Bumsted, J. M. (1983) Lawson, David. Dictionary of Canadian Biography V: 477-78.

Bumsted, .J. M. (1987) Land, Settlement, and Politics on Eighteenth Century Prince Edward Island. McGiIl—Queen’s University Press, Kingston and Montreal. pp. 51-55.

Mice at the same Summer [1775] the whol Crop Eate by the Mice upwards of 100 bushles Stanhope. of different grain soing accept as Much as was seed to the ffarm and some ffor the settlers who lost there whole Crop that year. [p. 1]

Forest fires at Same ffall I built the dame [dam] and in the Summer 1777 | Built the Miln [mill] A

Stanhope. third time and bought-Laid out above £10 to Cleir all the Spruce and pine Neir the Mill in Case of Such accidents happning A fforth time as it was the woods Burning that was Bleamed ffor the Mils Burnning '... [p. 21 Mice at. the year that the Mise Eat all the Crop at that place [Three Rivers] the whole Three ”New. Settlers left that place on account of having no seed to put in the ground above thirty

good settlers and the same would have happened in Stanhope Settlement had I not attended the Crop night and day and Killed some Hougheads [hundreds?] of by which

meins I kept the Settlment all ffrom going off the Island [p. 2] A pme tree at and besids all the preceiding misfortans [misfortunes] the ffirst year I came [Le 1770] Three Rivers. I had a man kiled by the ffalling of A lairge pine tree that was cut ffor Loading the vessel [p. 3] 1. Benjamin Chappell in his Day—Book (Chappell 1775-1818) records the burning of the first mill in an entry

for 24 May 1775: ”News Came of the Destruction of Lawson’s Corn Mill

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