INTRODUCTION 



BY 



DR. TOWNSEND 



George Cartwright, the second son of William 

 Cartwriglit, was boni at Marnham, Nottingham- 

 shire, England, on February 12th (old style), 1739. 



One of his ancestors, Sir Hugh Cartwright, who 

 died in 1656, married the daughter and co-heiress 

 of Cartwright, of Edinglej^ He was faithful to the 

 cause of the unfortunate Charles, and was one of 

 those who made themselves responsible for the 

 debts contracted by the King during the siege of 

 Newark. Had it not been for this loyalty of Sir 

 Hugh to the cause of Charles, it is probable that 

 the Labrador Journal would never have been writ- 

 ten, for the family fortunes were so depleted in 

 those stormy times that George Cartwright, in- 

 stead of being able to follow his bent and live the 

 life of a sporting English gentleman, was obliged 

 to seek his fortunes over the seas among the rocks 

 of Labrador. Owing to this same depleted state 

 of the family exchequer, his education was cut 

 short, and we have in his Journal possibly a more 

 vigorous and less flowery record than we might 

 have had if George's education had been embel- 

 lished with all the latest touches of the age. 



Another of the ancestors of the subject of this 

 memoir, Edmund by name, married the sister of 



ziz 



