proprietors. That marked the end of a long and bitter struggle over land 
     
     ownership in Prince Edward Island, but it continues to resonate in the 
     
     province today over issues of land use and ownership. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In Kinkora, settlers faced similar conditions. Lot 27 was administered 
     
    

    
     by Horatio Mann from Philadelphia. His wife Isabella had inherited the 
     
     property from her father, James Searle, who with John Russell Spence 
     
     was the original proprietor. Mann visited the Island several times over the 
     
     years, but was discouraged by the slow pace of settlement. In 1833, he 
     
     wrote to a friend complaining that, “My wife’s estate in PEI as yet is not 
     
     advantageous from sundry expenses.” These expenses included surveying 
     
     farms and building roads and bridges. As well, revenue was limited 
     
     because new settlers did not have to pay rent for the first two years. 
     
    
   
   
    
     After the influx of settlers from Cork in 1835, the prospects of Lot 27 
     
     took an upward turn. Mann, who returned for a visit in 1839, made this 
     
     observation in his diary about his trip from Charlottetown to Bedeque: 
     
     “The roads were most excellent. In short, the number of log houses going 
     
     up on the road side, with burning and chopping down trees, and that 
     
    

    
     for miles, and in places beholding fine clearances and in many places 
     
     good farms of from 20 to 50 acres with a prospect ofgood crops. The 
     
     appearances to be after 6 years’ absence gave an entire new aspect to the 
     
     country around.” 
     
    
   
   
    
     In Lot 27, after two years’ free rent, farms of 100 acres could be rented 
     
     for 20 years at six pence per acre, then for 999 years at one shilling per 
     
     acre. The farms were long and narrow, extending on both sides of the 
     
     road. Horatio Mann reserved every alternate farm, telling the tenants if 
     
     they conducted themselves well they would have first choice over all new 
     
     settlers for the acquisition of additional land. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The local land agent for Mann was Joseph Pope, a prominent shipbuilder 
     
     in Bedeque and a powerful member of the provincial Executive Council. 
     
     Pope admired the hard—working Irish, and made a number of concessions 
     
     to assist in their settlement. He approached Mann to donate property 
     
    

    
     for the construction of the first church. Mann at first refused, saying the 
     
     “ignorant Irish” should have no land on which to build a Papist church. 
     
    
   
   
    
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