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Key Events in the History of Nova Scotia: 1800.
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[Backward In Time (1799)]
[Forward In Time (1801)]
§Napoleon managed to slip back from Egypt (autumn of 1799), France made him First Consul (dictator) and the little general re-energizes her; Italy is taken once again at Marengo; the "Second Coalition:" breaks up, leaving England once again alone to deal with France.
§February 20th, 1800: The 8th General Assembly in Nova Scotia sits.
§"May 17th, the private armed brig Nymph, Captain W. Pryor, brought in [to Halifax] two prizes, one American, the other Danish. They had been condemned (with their cargoes) at Bermuda." (Murdoch.)
§June 6th, William Cobbett and family, aboard the Lady Arabella, five days out of New York, arrived at Halifax en route to England.
§Sir William Parker (1743-1802) comes to Halifax as the commander-in-chief of the North American and West Indian station.
§June 23rd: "For sale, for term of years, as may be agreed on, a likely stout Negro girl, aged 18 years, good natured, fond of children, and accustomed to both town and country work." (Murdoch.)
§June 23rd, 1800: "A warrant to impress 30 men granted to Captain Murray." (Haliburton.)
§June 27th: "A general fast." (Haliburton.)
§31 July: "... This day the new law takes place for lowering the duty on rum, wine, & spirituous liquor ..." (Perkins.)
§"The Duke of Kent imported four horses of value, to improve the breed in the province." (Murdoch.)
§The Duke of Kent leaves Halifax for England for the last time.
§"On the 7 August a melancholy proceeding took place at Halifax. Eleven soldiers sentenced to death for acts of mutiny and desertion, were escorted with all solemnity behind the citadel by all the troops in garrison, viz., the Royal Newfoundland regiment, the Royal Nova Scotia regiment, 26th, 24th, 7th, and Royal artillery. The convicts were dressed in white, their coffins painted black, drawn on a cart before them. Two clergymen - Wright, (Protestant), and Burke, (Catholic) - attending them, a band playing some dirge. On the place of execution, eight were reprieved, and three who belonged to the Newfoundland regiment, were hanged at twenty minutes before 7, a.m." (Murdoch.)
§August, the Maroons, having arrived in Halifax during 1796, were placed on the ship Asia and sent off to a new British colony in Africa, Sierra Leone. "They had become discontented, and were a dead weight upon his Majesty's Government ..." (Murdoch.)
§"... in 1800 [Sept.] Britain captured Malta, and in the next year Sir Ralph Abercromby landed at Abukir Bay and defeated the French at the Battle of Alexandria." (Chatterton.)
§11 September the corner stone of Government House at Halifax was laid by Sir John Wentworth. This Georgian stone house, Government House stands and is in use today, the pride of Halifax.
§28 Sep (Sun): "... The Government Brig Earl of Moira, Capt. Fawson, arrived ... on board of which is Sir John Wentworth ... Michael Wallace & Lawrence Hartshorn are his attendants. Mr. William Cochran & myself immediately went on board, to wait on His Excellency. He set out for the Bay of St. Lawrence, and met the wind ahead yesterday off Jedore, which determined him to come here to make a visit to the people ..." (Perkins.)
§December 8th, 1800: Richard Bulkely having died, James Brenton is appointed Judge of the Vice Admiralty.
§The coming winter was to be a tough one. Smallpox got in amongst the population and took hold "early in the autumn, and 182 persons had died of it between September, 1800, and the month of February following." (Akins.) A number of fires were to break out in Halifax. Akins tells us that "Sir John Wentworth's stables at the lodge were burned down" and, more disastrously, on February 5th, 1801, a block of property on Hollis Street "fronting the old government house" was partially destroyed.
§For a few months during the winter of 1800-01 there was formed a league against England; the league consisted of Prussia, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. This "was caused partly by the whim of the Czar Paul [and] partly by two feelings then prevalent in the Courts of Europe, fear of France and jealousy of English naval power." (G. M. Trevelyan.) With Nelson's capture of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in April, 1801, this league against England shortly came to an end.
§26 Dec: "... Hay sold at auction. ... I buy two bundles ... Very dear keeping cattle. ..." (Perkins.)
§31 Dec: "... The small pox still mortal in Halifax. ..." (Perkins.)
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[Backward In Time (1799)]