"In him we have lost the guide and guardian of our interests, the reflection on the good he has done, the anticipation of great things still expected from such merits, and circumstances which, while they redound to his honour, aggravate the sense of our irreparable misfortune."
About the end of October, Commodore Lord Colville arrived in the harbor with the Northumberland and three other ships of the line and several frigates from Quebec. The Sloop-of-War England also arrived from England with dispatches and next day sailed for Louisburg and Quebec. Several transports also came in about the same time with Col. Montgomery's Highlanders to relieve the two battalions of the 60th Royal Americans.
Among the advertisements in the Halifax Gazette of 1st November, 1760, is the following:
"To be sold at public auction, on Monday the 3rd of November, at the house of Mr. John Rider, two Slaves, viz.: a boy and girl, about eleven years old; likewise, a puncheon of choice old cherry brandy, with sundry other articles."
1759. Among the town officers nominated by the Grand Jury this year were, John Fillis, Richd. Wenman, Richd. Gibbon and Wm. Schwartz as Commissioners of the poor for the town.
Surveyors of Highways, Chas. Morris, Esq., Chas. Proctor, Esq., Mr. Wm. Prescott and Mr. John Rider.
This year an Act of the Legislature was passed to regulate the Sambro Light House at the entrance of Halifax Harbor, which had been erected the previous year at the expense of £1000. The Work House was also erected this year. Firing guns within the town and peninsula was forbidden in 1758 under a penalty.
The accession of King George the Third was proclaimed at Halifax on the 11th February, 1761, with great ceremony. The proclamation was first read at the Court House door,38 then at the north gate of the town,39 at Government House, at the south gate,40 and lastly on the Parade, where the troops were drawn up and a salute fired by the artillery. Lord Colville's fleet being in the harbour at the time, "each ship fired a Royal Salute, beginning with his Lordship's flagship the Northumberland."
The order of the procession on this occasion was as follows: – 1st, A Company of Grenadiers; 2nd, Constables of the Town; 3rd, Magistrates; 4th, Civil Officers of Government; 5th, Constables; 6th, The Provost Marshall with two deputies on horseback; 7th, a Band of Music; 8th, Constables; 9th, The Commander-in-Chief of the Province, the Honorable Jonathan Belcher, with Admiral Lord Colville and Colonel Foster, commandant of the Garrison, and the members of His Majesty's Council; 10th, the Speaker and the members of the House of Assembly, followed by the principal inhabitants. At three o'clock the company waited on the Commander-in-Chief at Governor Lawrence's head tavern, where a very elegant entertainment was provided for them, and after dinner His Majesty's health was drunk under Royal Salute from the Batteries, also other toasts, and the evening concluded with great rejoicings and illuminations, bon-fires and artificial fire works, played off by the Royal Artillery. A sermon was afterwards ordered to be preached (13th February, 1761) in St. Paul's Church, on account of the decease of the late King, and all public amusements were ordered to cease for one month from that day. The 17th was accordingly set apart and the sermon preached by the Rev. T. Wood, the Curate. Part of St. Paul's church was hung in black, and minute guns were fired for an hour and a half, and the flags on the Citadel and George's Island were half-mast during the day.
On the 11th day of February, 1760, two Indian Chiefs of the Passamaquoddy and St. John River tribes, came to Halifax with Colonel Arbuthnot and appeared before the Council, and by their interpreter, settled with the Governor terms of peace, renewing the Treaty of 1725 and giving hostages for their good behaviour. At their request truck houses were established at Fort Frederick. Benjamin Gerrish, John Collier and Thomas Saul were appointed a Committee to prepare the Treaty in French and English, which was to be taken back with them to be ratified by their tribes. It was arranged that Colonel Arbuthnot should accompany them, and that they should be sent back at the public expense, after which His Majesty's health was drunk and the Chiefs returned to the quarters assigned them by the Governor. On the 13th the Treaty was ratified in Council and the Indians and the Governor and Council settled the table of the prices to be established at the truck houses. The Indians stated that the number of their tribes, men, women and children, was about 500. During the sitting of the Council on the 13th, Roger Morris, one of the Mic-Mac Indians, appeared and brought with him three Frenchmen who were lately arrived from Pictou, and another Indian called Claude Renie, who said he was Chief of the Tribe of Cheboudie Indians. He stated that he had left 70 of his people at Jeddore; the men were out killing moose and their families were in want of provisions. It was arranged that provisions should be sent to them and that the men should forthwith come up and conclude a peace.
Treaties of peace were afterwards concluded on 10th March following with three Mic-Mac Chiefs, viz., Paul Laurent, chief of the Tribe of LaHave, Michael Augustine, chief of the Tribe of Richibucto, and the before-mentioned Claude Renie, chief of the Cheboudie and Musquodoboit Indians; the treaty was signed in Council on that day and they received their annual presents. Another treaty of peace was signed in Council on 15th October, 1761, with Jannesvil Peitougawash, Chief of the Indians of the Tribe of Pictock and Malogomish, and the merchants and traders were notified that the Indian trade to the eastward would be thrown open under regulations in the following spring. The following summer Joseph Argunault, Chief of the Mongwash Indians, with a number of followers, appeared before the Council and executed a final Treaty of peace. The members of Council and Legislature, with the Magistrates and public officers, attended on the occasion.
The Abbe Mallaird being introduced, interpreted the treaty to the Chief, who was then addressed by the Hon. Mr. Belcher, the Commander-in-Chief. The treaty was respectively signed by the Commander-in-Chief and the Indian Chief, and witnessed by the members of the Council present, the Speaker of the Assembly and Mr. Mallaird.41 The Chief then addressed Mr. Belcher in the following manner: That he had formerly paid obedience to another King, but that he now acknowledged King George 3rd for his only lawful Sovereign, and vowed eternal fidelity and submission to him; that his submission was not by compulsion, but that it was free and voluntary with his whole heart, and that he should always esteem King George 3rd as his good father and protector. That he now buried the hatchet in behalf of himself and his whole tribe, in token of their submission, and of their having made a peace which should never be broken upon any consideration whatever. The Chief then laid the hatchet on the earth, and the same being buried the Indians went through the ceremony of washing the paint from their bodies, in token of hostilities being ended, and then partook of a repast set out for them on the ground, and the whole ceremony was concluded by all present drinking the King's health and their Haggas. This ceremony is said to have been performed in the Governor's garden, westward of the old English burial ground, where the Court House now stands. Benjamin Gerrish, Esquire, was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and additional truck houses were built and other arrangements made throughout the Province for more effectually carrying on the Indian trade.
On the 30th December, 1760, Malachi Salter, Alexander Grant, Jonathan Binney and John Burbidge were appointed Justices of the Peace for the Town of Halifax. Mr. Burbidge was a member of Assembly; he afterwards removed to the country and settled in Cornwallis township, where his descendants now remain.
The French having invaded the British settlements in Newfoundland, and captured the fort of St. John, a council-of-war was called at Halifax, for the purpose of consulting on means of the defence of the town in case of an attack. This Council was composed of Lt. Governor Belcher, Col. Richard Bulkely, Halifax Militia, Major General Bastead of the Engineers, Col. William Foster, Lt. Col. Hamilton, Lt. Col. Job Winslow, and the Right Honorable Lord Colville, commander-in-chief of the squadron. They met on the 10th July, 1762, and continued their sittings until 17th August. They recommended to Government the embodying a portion of the militia force, and that the Batteries on George's Island, Fort George, Point Pleasant and East Battery should be put in repair and guns mounted, and the erection of such works around the town and at the Dockyard as might be considered necessary for the protection of the place. The whole to be placed under the superintendence of General Bastead of the Engineers. Some of the old works were put in repair and others added on this occasion,