[Robinson, Joseph] (c. 1798) To the Farmers of the Island of St. John in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 4 pp. [P.E.|. PARO: Smith — Alley Collection: Acc. 2702, Ser. 9, 684.]

Joseph Robinson lb. c. l 742, d. 7807) had been born in Virginia and at the time of the American rebel/ion was a resident of South Carolina who had active/y remained loyal to the crown. in 7785 he settled in New Brunswick as a loyalist, and four years later at the invitation of Governor Fanning came to the Island of St. John, where in the 7 790 he was elected to the House of Assembly, in which he held the post of speaker for four years. He was also appointed an assistant judge, a non—paying post. The four-page pamphlet (printed without his name on it) represents Robinson ’s principal foray into island politics. it dealt especially with the difficulties of soil and climate confronting farmers on the island — Robinson himself had a particular interest in the science of the day and had conducted experiments on his farm on Lot 34 that had led to improvements. The pamphlet also addressed the problem of land tenure and called on the island ’3 House of Assembly to petition the king to create a court of escheat with the aim of recovering the land from those proprietors who had not fulfilled their obligations under the terms of the grants. The pamphlet contains a useful reference to the hardwood forests and the problems of their clearance, and to the plagues of mice that periodical/y afflicted the island.

REFERENCES:

Bisset, A. P. (1983) Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Robinson. in: An Island Refuge (ed. by 0. Jones and D. Haslam). Abegweit Branch of the United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada, pp. 247—50.

Bumsted, J. M. (1983) Robinson, Joseph. Dictionary of Canadian Biography V: 720-21.

Bumsted, J. M. (1989) Land, Settlement and Politics on Eighteenth Century Prince Edward lsland. McGill—Queen’s University Press. pp. 182-83.

Hardwood trees. If a farm is cleared of hard woods, viz. beach, birch, and maple, the stumps cannot be taken out of the ground, unless at a very great expence, until they decay, which will be eight, nine, or ten years — and in all that time scarcely any ploughing can be performed.

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Plagues of mice. The plague of mice peculiar to this Island, from which all his Majesty's dominions on this side of the Atlantic ocean, all of the United States, and all of the Spanish possessions on the coast of America are free — this place alone is subject to that extraordinary curse! These animals appear alternately, and without any determinate period. Their numbers, and the destruction they were capable of effecting, can only be conceived by those who have been eye-witnesses of their ravages. They appeared in the years 1776, 1781, and in 1796, in which year there was but little grain left, and a great part of the grass upon the highland meadows was also devoured.

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