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Key Events in the History of Nova Scotia: 1805.
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[Backward In Time (1804)]
[Forward In Time (1806)]
§6 Jan: [Cold weather.] "... for about a month past has been generally very severe winter weather more so than we have experienced for some years so early in the season." (Perkins.)
§January, 1805: Circular Letter from London: Letters of Marque are to be issued for the capture of Spanish vessels of all descriptions.
§At the request of Admiral Mitchell, due to the depletion of seamen by desertions, Governor Wentworth issues an "impress warrant."
§1 June: "... Some news in the papers about a French & Spanish fleet of 20 sail about the Windward Islands." (Perkins.)
§June 11th: News is heard by Governor Wentworth, via Newfoundland, that a large fleet of Spanish and French Men-of-War had gathered at Cadiz, and, evading the British picket-ships, set to sea: destination, not known.
§14 June: "... If there is such a fleet in the West Indies all the shipping and perhaps all the English Islands will fall a sacrifice if a superior fleet of English ships does not soon follow them." (Perkins.)
§19 July: "... The schooner, Antelope ... arrives from St. Lucy with 136 punchions molasses, rum & hhd sugar, some cotton & a sterling bill of £40." (Perkins.)
§Wentworth approached the admiral at Halifax to see if some of the French prisoners being held at Halifax, which in September of 1805 amounted to five or seven hundred might be released. A number of them came off the Ville de Milan and the Cleopatra (formally a British ship) both vessels having been captured by the Leander. These prisoners were under the command of the admiral. The admiral refused as he had not received any instructions from his superiors in London to release or exchange prisoners.
§22 July: [An arriving captain reports] "that several vessels belonging to Nova Scotia bound home from the West Indies had fallen in with the French squadron bound to France. That one, Capt. Harris, had escaped by heaving his papers overboard and having some place in the United Sates wrote on his stern." (Perkins.)
§On 24 August Napoleon, who had joined the invasion army waiting at Boulogne, three weeks earlier, ordered it to break camp so that it might proceed to meet the gathering armies of Russia and Austria to the east, and, with the grand army marching away from the Channel, the fear of a French invasion on England was considerably reduced.
§By 1805, commerce in Nova Scotia was beginning to show promise: "More dried fish was preparing this summer than at any preceding season, and pickled fish business was on a large scale." (Murdoch.)
§"Married, at Halifax, May 3, 1805, [at] ... St. Paul's, Vice Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell, K.B., commander-in-chief of H.M. Fleet on that station, to Miss Mary Uniacke, eldest daughter of R.J. Uniacke, esq., of this town; and Thomas N. Jeffery, esq'r., Collector of H.M. Customs, to Miss Martha Maria Uniacke, second daughter of the same gentleman." (Murdoch.)
§A consolidation of the provincial statutes was made by Mr. Uniacke. The house allowed for the cost at £650. Of the 400 copies (Halifax: John Howe and son, king's printers, 1805) 100 were given away and 300 sold for 27s. 6d. each.
§26 Sept: "... James McLeod has absconded in the night. ... Such things are very alarming to the traders and very discouraging as it seems to indicate poverty and distress among the people when we so many of the inhabitants disposed to go off and leave their creditors without making any provision to pay them debts due to the traders seem to be of little consequence and real property of very little value." (Perkins.)
§2 Oct: "... It is said about 15 sail of American vessels are carried into Halifax on the new order prohibiting them from carrying enemy's produce." (Perkins.)
§10 Oct: "... The Brig Liverpool owned by Enos Collins & Messrs Prescott & Lawson sails this morning for Madeira, John Dean, Master. Loaded with fish and lumber." (Perkins.)
§October 21st, Nelson's victory at Trafalgar, by it both the French and Spanish navies were annihilated; and, the danger of any invasion of England pretty much melted away.
§Halifax hears of Nelson's victory. The town is illuminated. At Liverpool a Brig arrives [23 December] from "Newfoundland ... reports that there was news at St. Johns of Admiral Nelson meeting with the French fleet & taking and destroying upwards of 20 sail." (Perkins.)
§Dec. 14th: Governor Wentworth reports that he has moved into his new house, Government house.
§In December of 1805 the Battle of Austerlitz took place (Austerlitz is a place located in modern day Czechoslovakia). Napoleon decisively defeated the armies of Russia and Austria, each with its emperor at its head.
§"28 Dec'r. The committee of supply voted £12,000 for civil list, £6,000 for roads and bridges, £2,000 agriculture, £3,000 fisheries, £2,500 for the new Government House, £500 bounties to seamen to enlist in H. M. service, conditioned that no inhabitant or fisherman be impressed." (Murdoch.)
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[Backward In Time (1804)]