26 



After fourteen years' imprisonment Barker was released. About the same time was 

 liberated a French-Canadian woman who had occupied an adjoining cell. This woman 

 Barker sought out and married, and the pair crossed over into the States. It is said that 

 by loosening the bolts which secured the ends of a large box stove built into the partition 

 wall they had been able to keep up an acquaintance for some time previous to their 

 liberation. The jail arrangements of those days were of a primitive order. I have been 

 told that, in the States. Barker resumed his nefarious practices, and eventually paid the 

 penalty of his crimes on the scaffold. 



In the Life of Gosse, page 103, we read, "During the autumn" (of 1837) "he was 

 vexed and disturbed by having to appear in court to give evidence in a criminal case 

 against one of his few neighbours." Could this have been the case I have been recording 1 



Gosse alludes, in the preface to the Canadian Naturalist, to the " stormy politics and 

 martial alarms of the times." A few words will shew the condition of affairs in his 

 neighborhood. It was the period of the rebellion, and as an inroad of American 

 " sympathizers " was expected, the loyal inhabitants of the Townships felt called upon to 

 adopt precautionary measures. At a meeting of militia officers held at Frost Village, at 

 which Colonel Knowlton presided, it was resolved to send three of the leading men of 

 that part of the country as a deputation to solicit supplies of arms and ammunition from 

 the military authorities at Montreal. Accordingly Colonel Knowlton, Major Wood and 

 Abijah Wood were sent, and their errand was completely successful. Large supplies 

 were shipped (by way of the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu) to Philipsburg, on 

 Missisquoi Bay. Here they were met by numerous teams driven by the yeomen farmers 

 of the district. Good men and true from all the country round turned out to guard the 

 valuable consignment. Night came on, and under cover of the darkness, an armed force 

 of sympathizers from Swanton, Vermont, attacked the convoy at More's Corner. The 

 enemy were, however, beaten off and dispersed Volunteer companies, equipped with the 

 arms thus acquired, were soon formed in all that section of country. Captain Wood, of 

 Shefford, had under his command a body of cavalry numbering 85 men. Captain Savage, 

 of the same place had 100 infantry. Captain Becket, of Sherbrooke, had a troop of 

 horse and Captain Gilman, of Stanstead, another. In the quota of men sent from Compton 

 Gosse's friend, Amos Merril (p. 40) was sergeant. It is rather to be wondered at that 

 Gosse, amidst the general enthusiasm, did not take a more active interest in the military 

 movements of the times. Perhaps it was with him as with that good bishop in the middle 

 ages, against whom his knights and censitaires complained, that he was "a man of peace 

 and not at all valiant." The action of the United States authorities at this crisis was 

 prompt and judicious. Troops from the Southern States were brought up and stationed 

 along the American side of the border, and this doubtless prevented much harm. The 

 troops stationed at North Troy, Vermont, were brought from Florida, 



Two retired English officers were sent to superintend operations and watch the line 

 on the Canadian side. These men knew but little of the country, and amusing 

 reminiscences of them are still told in our country houses. For instance : One of them 

 was spending the night (a clear, cold winter night) at Hatley — the Charleston of Gosse 

 (p. 95). He heard repeatedly that soixnd (familiar enough to Canadian ears,) which ac- 

 companies the sudden loosening of a shingle-nail by the frost. The gallant colonel arose 

 in consternation and dressed himself in haste, convinced that because of his august 

 presence sympathizers were firing upon the house. 



One of the young men who drove a team at More's Corner, and who afterwards 

 joined Captain Wood's troop of cavalry, was Mr. Calvin L. Hall, a son of one of the 

 leading men of East Farnham. Mr. Hall being well mounted was chosen as a body guard 

 for the English officer above mentioned, and» in this capacity did some hard riding. On 

 one bleak day he, on horse-back, accompanied his superior, without stoppage, from 

 East Hatley to Frost village, a distance of 36 miles. The Englishman, well wrapped up 

 in buffalo robes, drove his team "at the jump," and viewed every piece of bush that he 

 passed with suspicion. Mr. Hall is now Lt.-Colonel Hall, of the 52nd "Brome"'' 

 battalion of Light Infantry. 



