110 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Patterson, one of the island proprietors, was appointed governor. 
The existing name of the island led to much confusion and inconveni- 
ence. There was Cabot’s Island of St. John off the west coast of Cape 
Breton, Gomez’s Island of St. John which was Cape Breton itself, 
the river St. John, and other instances of the name. Governor Patter- 
son complained of mails going astray, and asked to have the name 
changed. That of Prince Edward Island was therefore adopted.' 
The proprietors seemed to feel themselves under no obligation to pay 
their quit-rents and the island officials found it very difficult to keep 
the government machinery in motion. The governor became involved 
in a quarrel over the sale of lands, and felt it necessary to get the influ- 
ence of such people as the Loyalists, who were now, at the evacuation 
of New York by the British troops, coming from that and other states 
to settle in Nova Scotia. The proprietors saw a chance to escape the 
payment of quit-rents on any land granted to Loyalists and found thus 
a special interest in their coming. Hence, in examining the causes for 
the settlement of the Loyalists in Prince Edward Island we must first 
consider the apparently liberal offer made by the proprietors of the 
island itself in 1783. This offer was set forth in a petition delivered 
to Lord North, declaring their desire to afford asylum to such distressed 
fellow-subjects as preferred a settlement on the island to one in Nova 
Scotia, and asking for such an abatement of quit-rent as would render 
the island an attractive place of settlement for American Loyalists. The 
petition asserted as its motive the wish to further the prosperity of the 
colony.’ 
This step naturally received encouragement from the British Gov- 
ernment. Accordingly, the governor, by advice of the Council, issued 
a proclamation promising certain lands to those who should choose 
to become settlers in the same manner as in Quebec and Nova Scotia.* 
And when this procedure did not prove entirely satisfactory, the Island 
legislature, in 1790, passed an act, which was approved by His Majesty 
the King of England in 1793, empowering the governor, lieutenant- 
governor, or other commander-in-chief for the time being, to give 
grants of such portions of the lands resigned by the proprietors as were 
then in possession of Loyalists and reduced soldiers.‘ The governor 

‘Warburton, Historical Sketch of Prince Edward Island. 
* The text of this paper is quoted in the Act of the Legislature of 1790. See 
Revised Statutes of Prince Edward Island, 30th George III, ch. 5. 
* The proclamation is quoted in the report of the Committee appointed in 1833 
to investigate the complaints of the Loyalists. See Journal of the House of Assembly 
of Prince Edward Island for the year 1833. 
‘See Revised Statutes of Prince Edward Island, 1790. 30th George ITI, ch. 5. 
