[SIEBERT & GILLIAM] THE LOYALISTS IN P.E.I. 113 
adds that he acted as one of their army guides during most of the war 
but got nothing for it. 
In general it may be said of these new members of the island com- 
munity that they were capable and industrious people, recognized as 
valuable settlers, and became the founders of thrifty, prosperous and 
continuing families. The provincial librarian, Mr. W. H. Crosskill, 
writing in 1906, says in this connection:! “Many well known families 
of to-day, thrifty and prosperous citizens of such fine farming districts 
as Bedeque, Pownal, Vernon River, etc., are descendants of those who 
in 1783 preferred George of England to his namesake* Washington.” 
The settlements of the Loyalists were established for the most part 
on the south shore of the island. The lands assigned to them were 
in various townships, notably, Nos. 16, 17, 19, 26, 32, 50 and 56. Most 
of the people from Shelburne got settled, after much difficulty, at 
Bedeque Harbor. The obtaining of the grants was a very slow process; 
and in order to supply their necessities in the meantime the British 
Government issued provisions to them, at first for one month, but after- 
wards during the second month also. Many of the Rhode Island immi- 
grants were, according to a writer of 1821-22, located in King’s County.’ 
Stuart, in his Account of Prince Edward Island speaks of the success 
of the Loyalist settlers in township No. 26 as proof of “what might 
have been expected from that description of people, had any consider- 
able number of them been brought to the Island instead of being en- 
couraged and in some measure compelled by the overbearing influence 
of a few individuals to settle themselves on the barren, foggy shores of 
the southern coast of Nova Scotia.’’4 
By far the greater part of Loyalist history in the island must, of 
necessity, be taken up with the wrongs and persecutions inflicted on the 
Loyalist settlers. It is not putting the matter too strongly to say that 
the proprietors participated in a general defalcation when the settlers 
began appearing in response to the offers first set forth in the proprietary 
petition to Lord North. Even Edmund Fanning, when lieutenant 
governor was implicated, as one of the proprietors, in the trouble which 
arose over township No. 505 The Loyalist settlers in this township, 

! Prince Edward Island, the Garden of Province of Canada, p. 18. 
* Letter of C. Stewart, appointed to muster disbanded troops and Loyalists, 
dated St. John’s Island, 9th August, 1784. See Muster Rolls of Loyalists and Soldiers, 
1784, Vol. 376. 
3 Warburton, Prince Edward Island, an Historical Sketch, p. 30. 
‘John Stewart, Account of Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
pp. 207-217. See also Interviews appended to reports of committees in the Journals 
of the House of Assembly of Prince Edward Island. 
5 See Journal of the House of Assembly of Prince Edward Island for year 1833— 
report of the committee to whom was referred the Petition of American Loyalists 
in 1832. 
Sec. II., 1910. 8. 
