20 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



hroiight out by one Alexander McNutt, who did much for the work of 

 earl}' colonization ; others came from New Hampshire, where they had 

 been settled for some 3'carti. The name of Londonderry in New Hamp- 

 shire is a memorial of the migration of this important class just as the 

 same name recalls them in the present county of Colchester. A few per- 

 sons of the same class went to Amherst, Wilmot and Windsor. 



Some of these peo])le, however, Avere not animated by those senti- 

 ments of burning loyalty that distinguished the people who sull'ered so 

 deeply during the War of Independence, and sought refuge in Acadia 

 and Canada rather than swerve from their allegiance to England. 

 During the war some of these inhabitants notoriously sympathized 

 with their rebellious countrymen, and at one time it was necessary to 

 take stringent measures to awe the rebellious element in Cumberland. 

 The jieople of Trui-o, Onslow and Londonderry refused to take the oath 

 of allegiance, and were for a time not allowed to be represented in 

 the assembly. In other places a few desired to be neutral during the 

 revolution, but the government very properly would not permit it. Some 

 overt acts of treason were committed, but the authorities had always full 

 knowledge of the suspected persons who were inclined to betray the 

 government that had treated them with so much consideration from the 

 moment they came into the countiy.' The settlers in the townships of 

 Cornwallis, Ilorton, Windsor, Falmouth and Newport appear to have 

 shown a continuous attachment to British connection, and raised several 

 companies of volunteers for the defence of the province. The number of 

 disatfecied pei-sons among the New England immigrants of 1760-61 were 

 small when we consider their intimate connection with the rebellious 



' Governor Franklin, in a letter to the Earl of Shelburne under date of 1766, 

 gives an interesting reference to the condition of the new settlements : "The coun- 

 try people in general, work up, for their own use, into stockings, and a stuft' called 

 homespun, what little wool their few sheep produce ; and they also make part of 

 their coarse linen from the fiax they produce. The townships of Truro, Onslow and 

 Londonderry, consisting in the whole of six hundred and ninety-four men, women 

 and children, composed of people chiefly from the north of Ireland, make all their 

 linen, and even some little to spare to the neighl)ouring towns. This year they 

 rai.sed seven thousand five hundred and twenty-four pounds of flax, which will pro- 

 bably be v^orked up, in their several families, during the winter. I cannot omit 

 representing to your Lordship, on this occasion, that this government has at no 

 time given encouragement to manufactures which could interfere with those of 

 Great Britain ; nor has there been the least appearance of any association of private 

 persons for that purpose ; nor are there any jiersons who profess themselves weavers, 

 so as to make it their employment or business, but only work at it, in their own 

 families, during the winter and other leisure time. It may be also proper to observe 

 to your Lordship that all the inhabitants of this colony are employed either in hus- 

 bandry, fishing, or provifling lumber; and that all the manufactures for their 

 clothing, and the utensils for farming and fishing, are made in (îreat Britain. " See 

 Murdoch's " History of Nova Scotia," vol. IL, p. 4(i;i. Those were days when the 

 mperial government prohibited the manufacture of all articles that were made in 

 England, as the history of the old thirteen colonies notably shows. 



