How New England Scots help the settlement of Nova Scotia
According to W.O. Raymond’s “Colonel Alexander McNutt and the Pre – Loyalist Settlements of Nova Scotia”, Royal Society of Canada, 1912, Alexander McNutt is believed to have come from Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and after immigrating to America sometime before 1753 first lived in Virginia and then moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire.
McNutt served as a Captain at Fort Cumberland (near Sackville, New Brunswick) from April to November, 1760 and became involved in the colonization of Nova Scotia.
After the expulsion of 7,000 Acadians from 1755, the English wanted to colonize and settle the previously occupied lands.
Governor Charles Lawrence of Nova Scotia issued two proclamations encouraging settlement, by offering land to anyone willing to move to Nova Scotia. In return for bringing in immigrants, Governor Lawrence offered McNutt Seven Townships in Nova Scotia.
McNutt attempted to attract settlers from among Irish Presbyterians or Ulster Scots who had already arrived in North America and were living in Londonderry, New Hampshire, as well as ones living in Northern Ireland.
Londonderry settlers destined for Onslow and Truro, Nova Scotia boarded ship in 1761 in Boston, picking up more persons at the mouth of the Merrimack River in New Hampshire. About 50 families arrived in late May at the mouth of the Salmon River and were given land grants.
For several years McNutt continued with other proposals for colonization without success. Nevertheless, by 1770 Scots from Londonderry, NH and Ulster were living in the communities which they founded at Londonderry Truro, and New Dublin, and also in Granville, New Donegal (Pictou), Halifax and in parts of Hants County.
In the late 1760s McNutt went back to Nova Scotia and lived on McNutt Island. He also lived in Truro as his name appears on the town census for 1771. During the American Revolution his home on McNutt Island was robbed by American privateers and he travelled to Boston to appeal for relief from the Massachusetts Council. Not achieving any immediate success, he went to Philadelphia and petitioned Congress to draw Nova Scotia into the revolution.
The Scots settlers in Nova Scotia were sympathetic to the American Revolution. However, their numbers were not large enough when compared to the size of the colony and the large British garrison for them to realistically rebel.
The British may not have been willing to fight over Nova Scotia. The British War Secretary indicated in the event that neighboring New Brunswick was attacked from America that it was not defensible and the troops should fall back to Halifax. If this had happened most of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia could have been in rebel control. It is possible to imagine that at the end of the American Revolution the Maritimes joining with the other British colonies to form the United States of America.
After the revolution ended McNutt returned to McNutt Island for several years but moved to Virginia in 1796 when he had experienced financial difficulties and lost his assets in Nova Scotia. He is believed to have died in about 1811.
Image Source: Sandra Phinney
