Heyden, Captain Samuel et al.1 (1782) Letter (dated 30 November 1782) signed by six officers in the King’s Rangers, then stationed on the Island of St. John. Printed in the New York Royal Gazette, 5 March, 1783. [Reprinted by [Cambridge, John] (1796?, 1805) in: A Description of Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. Laurence, North America R. Ashby & Co.; W. Winchester & Son; London. pp. 3-4].

This letter, printed in the New York Royal Gazette — a newspaper circulating among loyalist refugees, then gathering in New York City in the dying days of the American rebel/ion, appears to have also been published as a separate broadsheet. It was also reprinted in the various editions of John Cambridge ’s A Description of Prince Edward Island. Though its signatories, six officers in the King ’3 Rangers then serving on the Island of St. John, proclaim in the letter their disinterest in the matter, the real driving force behind its circulation would appear to have been Governor Walter Patterson and the island government. The regiment, which had been recruited in New Jersey, had in fact been on the island only since the previous spring, and several of the signatories, including Captain Heyden, were, despite their disclaimer, soon to settle and acquire land. The aim of the letter is to bring the island to the attention of loyalists anxious for a place to settle. The picture it presents is wholly positive including the short, and at first sight apparent/y factual description of the island ’5 forests as ’we// wooded’. Though this can only have been the truth, as would have been obvious to even the most casual visitor, it is in fact putting a positive glass on what in most contexts would have been considered a disadvantage — especially to persons coming from long-settled colonies: a land covered with thick forest. The description is also safe/y sandwiched between two indisputably positive assets: the island ’s ’good soil’ and ’freedom from rocks’. It is not that an untruth is stated, but using a method similar to modern real estate agents, a negative point is turned into a positive by a careful selection of words and context. Captain Hayden eventual/y returned to the United States and spent his final years in Maine.

REFERENCES:

Bumsted, J. M. (1987) Land, Settlement, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Prince Edward Island. McGiIl-Oueen’s University Press. pp. 99-100.

[Cambridge, John] (1796?, 1805) A Description of Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. Laurence, North America R. Ashby & Co.; W. Winchester & Son; London. (16 pages). [Reprinted 1818 with additions]

New, C. (1997) A History of Captain Samuel Hayden ’s Company of the King’s Rangers. At website: http://users.erols.com/candidus/kings.htm

To those LOYAL REFUGEES who either have already left, or who hereafter may leave their respective Countries in search of other Habitations.

We the SUBSCRIBERS (your Countrymen and Fellow-sufferers) hearing that several Families have already arrived in Nova-Scotia from New-York, and that many others intend coming to some of these Northern Colonies next Spring—think it our Duty to point out this Island to you, as the most eligible Country for you to repair to, of any

Well-wooded. We know between this and New—Jersey. The SOIL is good, it is well WOODED, and FREE from ROCKS. The climate so good that Fevers and Agues are unknown. Water everywhere excellent. There is ROOM for TENS of THOUSANDS, and Lands in the finest Situations, on Harbours, Navigable-Rivers and Bays, TO BE HAD EXCEEDINGLY REASONABLE. We were told that We should ourselves be eaten up by Insects, and much more, equally groundless; You will not imagine Us to be interested in the Advice We here give you, or in the Character of the Place, as We may be ordered away to—morrow;

[From a scan of an original copy in the New York Royal Gazette found at website: http:llusers.erols.com/candidus/kings.htm]

1. The other signatories were: Edward Mainwaring, Captain; John Throckmorton, Lieutenant; John Robins, Ensign; Joseph Beers, Ensign; Alexander Smyth, Adjutant; and Lewis Davis, Surgeon.

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