Early Nova Scotians:
1600-1867.

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Gage, Thomas (1721-87)

It would be difficult to come up with a British Army officer who had more experience in fighting in the North American wars, both the English/French Wars and the War of American Independence. (More)

Galissonniere, Roland Michael Barrin, Comte De La (1693-1756)

Galissonniere was a distinguished French naval officer. During the years between 1747 and 1756, he served as the administrator of Canada.

Ganet, Francois (1675-1747)

A French contractor responsible for the construction of Louisbourg between the years 1725-1735. (More)

Gannes de Falaise, Michael (1702-1752)

De Gannes was a French officer at Louisbourg who played a role during the 1745 siege. (More)

Garneau, Fancois-Xavier Garneau (1809-66)

See separate page on the Garneau, a French Canadian author.

George The Third, the King of England (1738-1820)

On October 25th, 1760, George The Third succeeded his grandfather George II (1683-1760) as the king of England. George the Second and his father before him, George the First, were more German than English. Their reigns were beneficial to England in that the first two Georges were content to play at being kings and let the English rule themselves through their democratic institutions. George the Third, however, was a different matter. He thought himself to be an English king, one to rule; and during his reign he attempted to take control. Green was to write that George The Third "had a smaller mind than any English king before him save James the Second. He was wretchedly educated, and his natural powers were of the meanest sort. Nor had he the capacity for using greater minds than his own by which some sovereigns have concealed their natural littleness. On the contrary, his only feeling toward great men was one of jealousy and hate. ... During the first ten years of his reign he managed to reduce government to a shadow, and to turn the loyalty of his subjects at home into disaffection. Before twenty years were over he had forced the American colonies into revolt and independence, and brought England to what then seemed the brink of ruin." Green concludes: "... the shame of the darkest hour of English history lies wholly at his door." In Thackeray's The Four Georges, we find, in respect to George III: "He bribed; he bullied; he darkly dissembled on occasioned; he exercised a slippery perseverance, which one almost admires, as one thinks his character over. His courage was never to be beat." Why did the English people put up with George the Third? The answer is simple: "the majority of the people remained helpless and distracted between their hatred of the house of Hanover and their dread of the consequences which would follow on a return of the Stuarts."

Germain, Charles (1707-1779)

Germain, a Jesuit priest, first came to Acadia in 1740 to act as a missionary to the Malicites and lived among them on the St. John River, pretty well throughout the time under review. Germain figures into our story when he led -- these French priests and missionaries were always in the service of not only their God, but also of the French king -- a band of warriors down to Beaubasin and from there went with Villiers overland from the Isthmus of Chignecto to catch the New Englanders napping at Grand Pre during February 1747.

Gesner, Abraham (1797-1864)

Gesner was a Nova Scotian; a country doctor; geologist; sailor; ship-owner; trader; author; lecturer; chemist; museum owner; and, famously, the inventor of kerosene. (More)

Girard, Jacques (1712-1782)

Father Girard was sent by the Seminaire des Missions etrangeres in Paris to New France to do his work. He arrived at Quebec, in 1740, this "little priest from Auvergne, of a candid nature and great zeal." In 1742, he was sent to be the parish priest at Cobequid (Truro). It is said (DCB) that Girard was of great assistance to Ramezay during the French campaign in Acadia during 1746-7. He, together with Maillard, obtained "provisions for the forces, acting as liaison between the various detachments, and sheltering wounded French soldiers in his presbytery." Cornwallis, in early 1750, had Girard together with four Acadian deputies arrested. Girard was to eventually come to terms with the British and was therefore allowed to return to his mission; but then, of course, he was in disfavour with the authorities at Quebec. In 1752, Girard crossed over with a number of Acadian families to Ile St Jean (Prince Edward Island). After the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, he, together with a number of Acadians were put aboard the Duke William at Prince Edward Island; it was to sink with a great loss of lives off the coast of England; Girard was one of the few survivours. He eventually found his way to France; and, though he tried to get back to Canada, he never did. He died at the Abby of Jouarre, France.

Godfrey, Alexander (d.1803):

Born in New England, Godfrey came to Liverpool in 1784. He was the captain of the famed privateer Rover. "Captain Godfrey was a man considerably beyond the ordinary size, of an exceedingly quiet demeanour and retiring disposition." He died in 1803 of yellow fever, while on a trip to Jamaica. [See, "Notes on Nova Scotian Privateers" NSHS, #13 (1908), p. 129; and see James F. More's History of Queens County (Halifax: N.S. Print, 1873) at pp. 169-74.]

Gorham, John (1709-1751)

Gorham came up from Barstable, Massachusetts as a civilian fighter to help out the British regulars who started to flow into Nova Scotia beginning just after the first siege of Louisbourg in 1745. He headed up a famous Indian fighting unit known as Gorham's Rangers. (More)

Goreham, Joseph (1725-90)

Of the Gorham's Rangers fame. (More)

Goutin, Mathieu de (c.1665-1714)

Goutin was an administrator at Port Royal prior to its capture in 1710. In 1714, he resumed his position as a "king's writer" at Louisbourg, but was soon to die there. (More)

Green, Benjamin (1713-72)

One of the English Council members at Halifax, who, in 1755, made the fateful decision to deport the Acadians. (More)

Grenville, William Wyndham (1759-1834)

William's father was George Grenville (1712-70) who had been the prime minister of England in 1763, resigning in 1765. William was sent off to Eton and then Oxford. At the age of 23 he entered parliament; by 1783 he was to be the paymaster-general; by 1789, speaker. In 1791, Grenville became foreign secretary, but, however, along with Pitt, in 1801, resigned because of George III's refusal "to assent to catholic emancipation, of which Grenville was a chief supporter." In 1806, Grenville was to form the government of "All the Talents" which was dissolved in 1807. (Chambers.)

Guyon, Louise (1668-?)

The French feminine fatal. (More)

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Peter Landry
2012 (2020)