Transactions of The Royal Society of Canada 



SECTION II 

 Series III MARCH 1915 Vol. VIII 



The Loyalist Settlements on the Gaspê Peninsula. 



By Prof. Wilbur H. Siebert of The Ohio State University. 



t Presented by W. D. LeSueur, F.R.S.C.) 



(Read May 27, 1914.) 



In his efforts at the close of the Revolution to find suitable places 

 for the settlement of those Loyalists who had taken refuge in Lower 

 Canada, Governor Haldimand sent Captain Justus Sherwood, a trusted 

 refugee from Vermont, to view the region round the northern side of 

 the Bay of Chaleurs. This region is part of the Gaspé Peninsula, 

 which forms the eastern extremity of the Province of Quebec, between 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the north and Chaleurs Bay on the south. 

 The eastern end of the peninsula is deeply indented by Gaspé Bay, 

 after which was named the administrative district that included most 

 of the peninsula and therewith the scattered, little settlements of the 

 French on its several shores. 



Captain Sherwood left Quebec, May 29, 1783, in the treasury 

 brig St. Peter, with his family, and bearing a letter of introduction 

 from Haldimand to Captain Hugh O'Hara at Gaspé Bay. The 

 letter stated that Sherwood's mission was to seek a location for a 

 settlement on the Bay of Chaleurs, and directed that everything in 

 the way of information and assistance be supplied him. 1 On June 

 7 our explorer reached his destination and landed his family at Captain 

 O'Hara's, where he was well received. In his journal of this expedition, 

 which is still preserved among Haldimand's papers, Sherwood tells 

 us that O'Hara showed himself very ready to serve the distressed 

 Loyalists, assisted him in the exploration of the country at Gaspé, 

 and accompanied him on his journey to Chaleurs Bay. Sherwood's 

 observations were extended to the situation, soil, climate, and products 

 of this region. Concerning the first named district Sherwood reported 

 that there was a quantity of level land of good soil and sparsely tim- 

 1 Second Report, Bureau of Archives, Ont., Pt. II, 957; Haldimand Papers, 

 B. 178, p. 197; B. 202, p. 142. 



