CHAPTER
VI: 1830-1850
The period, 1830-1853
is one of which little is known of Louisbourg, except from writers who visited the Old
Fortress to satisfy their sense of curiosity. It is well, however, to keep the 1830
prohibition on grants of land lots in Louisbourg (Old Town) in mind when examining this
period.
We know that
beginning in 1828 and continuing into the thirties Scottish settlers began to come to the
districts near Louisbourg. "The people were mostly fishermen from the Western Isles,
and in summer the heads of families came to Louisbourg to engage in the fishing industry.
This gave a supply of food for their families and, what is perhaps more important, a
chance to earn a little money. In later years, after the opening of the railway, many of
these people of Scottish descent moved into the town [probably a reference to the modern
day town]. [171] There is no indication that any of this group settled in the Old Town. There
probably was no land available, even if the land had been of a nature to kindle the desire
of new settlers. As noted before, the Kennedys, Kehoes, Powers, Cryers, and Slatteries
seem to have had fairly exclusive possession of this land.
LAND
TRANSACTIONS
A
perusal of the legal documents of the time shows judgments being recorded against Pierce
Kennedy in 1831, [172] and 1845 [173] for sums of money. In 1836 he placed a mortgage on his property
for a sum of one hundred dollars that he received from Charles McAlpine, also of
Louisbourg. He mortgaged:
"a
lot of land commencing at [the] West Gate thence north eighty degrees west one hundred
chains thence north ten degrees east one hundred and six chains more or less to the shore
thence easterly along the shore to the place of commencement, containing ninety acres more
or less. Secondly, a lot of land commencing at the Brew House thence running north seventy
five degrees west one hundred and six chains thence south fifteen degrees west ten chains thence
south seventy five degrees east one hundred and five chains to the shore thence following
the shore to the place of beginning containing one hundred and Seventy nine acres more or
less, and lastly a lot of land containing about Forty acres and for which a warrant of
Survey was obtained from the Surveyor General's Office at Sydney by the said Pierce
Kennedy on or about the 12th day of September ... one thousand eight hundred and sixteen
..." [174]
There
is no evidence to suggest that Kennedy did not meet the payment. At least, the land
remained in his possession until his death around 1850. Some years before, as previously
mentioned, a division of his father's property among himself, his sister Ellen (wife of
Richard Power), and his brother Dennis, must have occurred. A deed of 20 April 1840,
[175] records the conveyance by Richard Power and his wife Ellen [Kennedy] to William Cryer of
all that parcel of land:
situate
at the south western side of Louisbourg harbor and commencing to the north western corner
boundary of a lot of land owned and occupied by Richard Power at the shore; thence running
by the magnet in 1827 south forty two degrees and thirty minutes each thirty seven feet to
the Road leading to the said Richard Power's House thence along said Road fourteen
feet thence at right angles with said Road to the shore aforesaid thence along said shore
North westerly to the place of commencement ...
This
document would seem to indicate that Richard Power made his home at Louisbourg,
Matthew
Kehoe, who had obtained land by licence near the West Gate of the Old Town in 1795, and
who had married Catherine Slattery [heir to northern half of the Kavanagh lot], by whom he
had three children, George, John, and Mary Ann, deeded his lot of 1795 to the daughter,
Mary Ann, on 12 January 1843. The description of the lot in the deed was given as
"all that certain piece or parcel of land situated and being in Louisbourg ...,
beginning at a stake near the West Gate of the Town thence S.100 West one hundred and
eight chains, thence N.80' West 9 chains, thence N.10' East 100 chains to the shore side,
thence Easterly along shore to the place of beginning ..." [176]
"Mary
Ann Kehoe, single woman", by a deed dated [177] 25 September 1846 conveyed the above lot to
John Kennedy. The description of the lot was exactly that given in 1795 when Matthew Kehoe
first received legal right to occupy it.
STATE
OF THE FORTRESS SITE
Writers
of the era give us some indication of the Old Town. It is to be noted that the majority of
them contrasted the desolation of the site as it was then with its mighty splendour of the
French occupation. Some tend to exaggerate the desolation, but keeping all the available
information in mind, one can understand how the relatively non-existant population
startled the writers into expressing somewhat extreme statements concerning habitation.
The impression left, however, seems to be authentic enough. The Old Town was, by this era,
relegated to the low position of grazing around for sheep and its shores to maintaining
scanty fishing flakes and huts.
John
McGregor, who visited the area in the very early 1830's, said: "The Remains of all
the batteries and the foundations of many of the public buildings, the stockades, and, in
calm weather, the sunken ships of war, are still to be seen". After speaking of the
"desolation" of the site and the "scattered sheep", he continued,
"A few huts, the habitations of poor unambitious fishermen, form only a melancholy
contrast to the superb edifices, scientific fortifications, naval grandeur, military pomp,
and commercial activity of which Louisbourg once the splendid theatre."
[178]
A
somewhat extreme statement is made about the site in 1832 by Joseph Bouchette [Surveyor
General of Lower Canada, Lieut. Colonel C.M. Vice-President of the Literary and Historical
Society of Québec, and corresponding member of the society of Arts, London. He described
the "once famed harbor of Louisbourg" as "utterly deserted", and
remarked, "Although capacious and secure, no settlement has been made upon it since
the destruction of the town; and what was once, if not the largest, certainly the most
splendid town of La Nouvelle France, is now without an inhabitant."
[179] A petition of the
inhabitants of Louisbourg in 1835 [180] is interesting because of the names thereto affixed. The
inhabitants were expressing their recommendations of a "Mr. John Phelan[.] to the
commissioner of Schools [for] the North Eastern District of Cape Breton [.] as a fit
person to be Licenced a Public teacher." A note on the outside of the documents
indicates that Mr. Phelan was "to be licenced from 1
June 1835"; however, the note tells us that as of that date no school had been
established. The inhabitants of Louisbourg signing the document were McAlpine, William
Kennedy, Thomas Townsend, James Townsend, Mary Tutty, John Roach, James Lorway, Patrick
Fitzgerald, French Doygle[?], George Sharp, Thomas Kehoe, Dennis Kennedy, William Cryer,
David Burke, Pierce Kenady, Richard Power, John Young, and Jonathan Tutty. The three
Kennedies, William Cryer, and Richard Power seem to be the only names in the list that we
know possessed land in the Old Town.
An
attempt to revive Louisbourg as a fishing establishment is evidenced in the April 11th
1843 issue of The Cape Breton Spirit of the Times, in which an advertisement
announces a "public meeting to be held the following Saturday, for the purpose of
forming a fishing establishment at Louisbourg". The Times speaks highly of the event,
saying, "The time has passed when the chivalry of France assembled at Louisbourg to
raise bastion and rampart over the waters, but the time may come when a happy and thriving
population may dwell on the site of the vanished city, and the share in the furrow, and
the keel on the wave, promise permanency doomed to sword and shell."
[181]
By
1843 the chief land settlement seemed to be on the west and north end harbor land. Mention
is made of this new main area of settlement by Bishop John Inglis in an account of his
visitation at Louisbourg in a letter dated January 1844:
Thursday
July 27, [1843], Louisbourg ... 70 persons were collected for our service in the house of
Mrs. Loraway, who as several other aged persons did reminded me of my visit to them forty
years ago. Mr. Stevenson preached and I confirmed 39 of the congregation, whom I addressed
both before and after their Confirmation ..., I gladly encouraged them in the good work
they had already commenced, the erection of a Church, for which a site has been well
selected and given by Mr. McAlpin. The present chief settlement is more than two miles
from the site of the ancient fortified Town, whose ruins are still interesting. Several of
the present inhabitants are children of Soldiers who assisted in the siege and capture by
Lord Amherst and General Wolfe ... [182]
Letters
by the Rev. W.G. Porter, who was the Church of England missionary for the
Propagation of
the Gospel in the Louisbourg area between 1831-47, speak of the poverty of the Louisbourg
inhabitants. He attributed it to the poor price for fish and in one particular year, the
failure of the potato crop. Adding to their misery was the high price of flour in the
region.[183] This account gives good reasons for the unpopularity of Louisbourg. When the soil
is poor, crops uncertain, prices high, and income low, the region in question is not
likely to be particularly attractive to most settlers. This would seem to have been the
state of affairs at Louisbourg, especially in the rocky district of the Old Town.
A
full and informative depiction of Fort Louisbourg as given by Abraham Gesner in his book
of 1849 reads thus:
The
high walls that bustled with cannon, the ditch, the glacis, and portcullis, have almost
disappeared -- the bomb-proofs and magazine have become sheepfolds, and the stronghold of
the French in America is a heap of rubbish, overgrown the lichens.
I had
an opportunity of visiting the ruins of Louisbourg, the ancient capital of Canada, in
November last ...
The
arched places of arms and bomb proofs of the citadel are still entire. Three of them are
sheepfolds -- another is occupied by a fisherman for a cabbage cellar, and time has
encrusted the ceilings with small stalactites. The foundations of the barracks, chapels,
the nunnery, hospital, and other public buildings are still perfect; and the cells of the
prison are almost unbroken, as is also the kiln of a large brewery. The present
inhabitants are supplied with water from the Governor's Well, and the walls of some of the
buildings and chimneys are twelve feet high.
Louisbourg
was built on a peat bog. The peat now appears in the ditches, cut by the present
inhabitants. The ancient city is now occupied by half a dozen fishermen and their
families, who raise a few potatoes and cabbages in the old gardens and between the walls
of the fallen buildings. The houses and sides of the fortifications were chiefly built of
a porphynitic trap - a prevailing rock here ... [184]
Another
writer, Montgomery R. Martin in 1850 described Louisbourg as "so reduced to ruins
that, at first sight, the outlines of the chief buildings are scarcely discernable
..." [185] His reference to the flocks of sheep feeding on the old Fortress site and the
"desolation" clinging to the area are significant as they reveal the very nature
of the type of habitation existing - a pastoral one.
The
year 1850 signalled the end of this era. The outstanding event of that year, as far as it
related to Louisbourg and Cape Breton as a whole, was the Act passed by the government of
the province confirming titles to land in Cape Breton. The Act passed on the 28th day of
March A.D., 1850 read:
Be it
enacted by the Lieutenant-Governor, Council and Assembly as follows:
1.
All persons who may have gone into possession of any lands and Tenements in the Island of
Cape Breton under a Crown Lease, or under a Title derived from a
Lessee of the Crown
holding under such Crown Lease, shall respectively have hold, and enjoy all such Lands and
Tenements in Fee Simple, or in case of such derivative title, then shall they hold such a
title in any such Lands or Tenements as may have been conveyed or passed under and by
virtue thereof: Provided always that in any such derivative title the original Lessee
shall have fully assigned, conveyed, or demised his whole interest or title in such Lands;
and provided also that where any Grants under the Great Seal of the Province shall
have
passed, of lands previously contained in a Crown Lease to a different party than the
Lessee, or any one claiming under him, the Grantee, or any one claiming under him, being
in actual possession, shall be held to have the superior title, if such Grants shall have
passed Ten Years, or upwards, before the passing of this Act; And provided also, that
nothing herein contained shall extend to the General Mining Association, or other Lessees
of any Mines or Mineral in the Island of Cape Breton. [186]
This Act made lands
held previously by Crown Leases or other such forms of tenure the legal possessions of
their occupants. A sense of security was at long last give to landholders in Cape Breton.
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