Despite this turmoil, Digby had impressed Jacob Bailey when he visited in 1786. It was “a very handsome town … the situation of it is [an] exceedingly well chosen site both for the fisheries and every other trade adopted to the Province.” With the arrival of Loyalists the town grew sixfold to a population of 2,500 and “the country about it [was] clearing fast of the woods.45 Some three hundred families were to be accommodated around St. Mary’s Bay and the Sissibou River, but more than one-third never reached their lands, and by 1795 only sixty-eight families remained.46 By 1802 a consortium had been formed to market Digby properties to the outside world.47 Digby’s Loyalist residents were selling up and moving on:
[A]s it is probable that the peace which has lately taken place, may occasion many military and other transient persons to look for settlements in these provinces and some such may incline towards Digby … several gentlemen of that place [Digby] have associated for the purpose of removing … such difficulties as are most likely to oppose themselves to new settlers … they have selected and secured a number of commodious house lots … a proportion of these adjoining the water are adapted to trading persons — others are calculated for mechanics — and a few more for such as are only concerned in having an agreeable spot for a house, and room for a garden. The first applicant will have the first choice, and so on with other applicants in succession, until the whole are sold at the prices fixed.48
The Loyalists who streamed into the Maritimes created an instant population, but their relocation was far from straightforward. They had come as refugees and occupied land, principally in the Bay of Fundy region to satisfy the British government’s defence concerns, this being an area of prime military importance. However, although ex-soldiers could act as guardians of territory and take up arms quickly if need be, their training and experience did not necessarily prepare them for the rigours of pioneer life. Also, a location chosen for its military value did not always provide top-quality land. Beyond this was the seething discontent felt over the government’s failure to administer land grants satisfactorily. The problem was compounded in Nova Scotia by the fact that most of the best agricultural land had already been granted to New Englanders. Another problem was the shortage of women. A substantial number of Loyalists were young, single men who had served in the disbanded Loyalist regiments or as regulars in the British Army. Men from the Duke of Cumberland’s regiment went as far as asking the government for help in getting wives, as there were few eligible women in the district in which they lived. There were only ten married women in the regiment. Solving this severe gender imbalance was a pressing concern in many parts of the Maritimes.49
Loyalist grievances and complaints fed a festering resentment toward Britain and growing dissatisfaction over land allocations.50 These factors, plus an ongoing desire for a better situation, stimulated a constant movement of Loyalists both within and from the Maritime provinces. In fact, the most remarkable feature about the Loyalist influx was the speed and extent of the exodus that followed it.51 Within a year of their arrival, even while provisions were being supplied, nearly two thousand Loyalists are believed to have left Nova Scotia, almost half from Shelburne, although other districts, like Antigonish and Pictou in the eastern side of the province, actually saw their populations grow.52
These were defeated and demoralized refugees who had come down in the world with a jolt. Some, having left relative comfort back in the United States, faced the daunting and strenuous task of hacking out a farm from the wilderness. They were more fortunate than most settlers in being entitled to free land, food, and clothing allowances, as well as farming and building supplies. Yet, this, too, had its downside.
Resentful and antagonistic neighbours, jealous of their provisioning and other advantages, often made their lives a misery. Greatly disillusioned, thousands of Loyalists simply gave up. Some went to other areas of the Maritimes or other parts of British America, a few returned to Britain, but most of those who left went back to the United States, where they normally received a cordial welcome.53
Map 4. Based on Wynne, “A Region of Scattered Settlements,” 322.
However, despite early disappointments and setbacks, many Loyalists remained and benefited from the region’s improving economic growth. In due course, the 1871 census would go on to reveal a striking predominance of people of English ancestry in the Loyalist strongholds of the Bay of Fundy region. The English were concentrated in western Nova Scotia, the St. John River valley, and Charlotte County in New Brunswick, mirroring exactly the principal areas chosen to accommodate Loyalists (see Map 4). Although their number cannot be quantified, it appears that the English represented a high proportion of the Loyalist intake in these areas. However, while many had English roots, most Loyalists had been born in the United States. The Chignecto Isthmus also acquired large English concentrations, but this stemmed from the large intake of Yorkshire immigrants just before the outbreak of the American Rebellion.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was always anxious to send Anglican missionaries to areas of the New World where Church of England congregations might be formed. In fact, Anglican churches had been built in Nova Scotia long before the Loyalist influx reached Nova Scotia. St. Paul’s Church had been founded in Halifax in 1749, while churches at Lunenburg, Annapolis, and Windsor followed soon after. Lunenburg is particularly interesting since its congregation was composed of former Lutherans, who were indisputably German. Yet Lunenburg County became strongly Anglican, its German population having adopted the Church of England from the time of their arrival in the town of Lunenburg in the early 1750s.54
Thus, support for the Church of England in itself is not a reliable indicator of the predominance of English settlers. In fact, the Church of England was fairly accommodating in accepting non-Anglicans, being driven strongly by the desire to exert its influence within communities generally. Oozing respectability and conservative values, Anglican missionaries sought to dissuade people from supporting the emotional evangelism that was sweeping the area, but they were no match for the charismatic preachers who spoke the language of ordinary people.
The Anglican bishop Charles Inglis, who arrived in Halifax in 1787 as the first North American bishop of the Church of England, hoped that loyalty to Britain would translate into support for Anglicanism, but he was sadly disappointed. He soon discovered that there were more nonAnglicans than Anglicans among the Loyalists. He also discovered even less support for Anglicanism amongst the pre-Loyalist communities.
There was a small but powerful Anglican presence in Halifax, but beyond this, Nova Scotians had shown only patchy support for the Anglican faith. Over 60 percent of its population was made up of New England Congregationalists who later joined Baptist churches. Apart from the Chignecto Isthmus, where Methodism prevailed, there was little church presence anywhere in New Brunswick before 1784. Consequently, while the Church of England was an important denomination, it did not attract sufficient support from Loyalist immigrants to achieve numerical superiority throughout the region.55
Undaunted, the Church of England persisted in its efforts to promote the Anglican religion in Loyalist areas. Principally through funding received in the form of government grants, new churches suddenly sprouted in 1783 at Cornwallis, Horton (Wolfville), and Parrsboro in Kings County, Digby, and Shelburne. Shortly after, the town of Halifax, Cumberland County, Sydney in Cape Breton,56 and the town of Guysborough acquired their Anglican