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Key Events in the History of Nova Scotia: 1807.
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[Backward In Time (1806)]
[Forward In Time (1808)]
§January 7th: A British Order-in-Council prohibits trade.
§January 22nd: A resolution is passed to grant £500 for the purpose of building a lighthouse on Briar Island.
§February 21st, 1807: Governor Wentworth suspends William Tonge from the office he held as the "naval officer."
§March 25th: A bill, The Abolition of the Slave Trade, receives Royal Assent in Great Britain and thereby becomes law. "This Act, be it remembered, did not abolish Slavery, but only prohibited the Traffic in Slaves; so that no ship should clear out from any port within the British dominions after May 1st, 1807, with slaves on board, and that no slave should be landed in the Colonies after March 1, 1808." (John Ashton.)
§June 23rd: Bounties are offered by the Nova Scotian government for the "clearing, sewing and fencing of land."
§Robert Fulton's Clermont proves the practicality of steam power for river craft.
§The "Chesapeake Incident": "On June 22nd, 1807, the British frigate Leopard had demanded the right to examine the crew of the U.S.S. Chesapeake for the purpose of impressing British deserters alleged to be on board. When this was refused, the Leopard poured three broadsides into the American ship, rendering her helpless. Four sailors were forcibly removed from the Chesapeake. Overnight, talk of war spread across America." (Spater, William Cobbett: The Poor Man's Friend (Cambridge University Press, 1982) at vol.#1, p. 208.)
§July 12th: Wentworth complains: "I most sincerely wish the Inhabitants of the Country would duly consider the baseness and wickedness of encouraging desertion, by concealing and employing deserters."
§July 14th: Governor Wentworth writes Castlereagh and expresses his fear that war might break out, and questions the wisdom of removing the 29th Regiment, "from whose example, discipline and experience, as well as strength" will be missed. Wentworth also observes that there is a "great want of arms and ammunition" and that the province should have, if war breaks out, "an armed Brig of 14 guns and 40 men."
§August 18th: In a letter to Castlereagh, Wentworth reports that the "Revenue schooner Hunter has gone from the Gulph of St. Lawrence where it was protecting the fisheries against American encroachments to the Bay of Fundy where it will be employed in preventing American smugglers from entering the harbours disguised as fishermen ..."
§August 31st: Halifax: "This morning the two seaman, who were taken from on board the Frigate Chesapeake in conformity to the sentence passed upon them last week, was inflicted, one of them undergoing the flogging thro the fleet died at nine o'clock the other was hanged on board the Halifax Sloop-of-war." (John Liddell, a merchant at Halifax, in his diary.)
§August 24th, all export of provisions from the Province prohibited until 1 November "to prevent speculators advancing prices in consequence in arrival of a fleet. ... Rear Admiral Sir Alexander Cochran was now at Halifax, with two ships of the line, three frigates and a sloop, which were nearly complete, by September 19, in repairs and provisions." (Murdoch.)
§September 19th: Both the admiral (Berkeley) and the general (Hunter) agree "that the fortifications around Halifax should be repaired immediately."
§October 11th: Wentworth writes Castlereagh: "Arrangements have been made for a corps of 500 militia to repair to Halifax and act as regular troops, also to help in repairing the fortifications, until the reinforcements shall arrive from England."
§At Halifax: "In the latter part of 1807 and early part of 1808 an irregular pentagonal redoubt at Fort Needham was again thrown up over the ruins of the earlier fort." (Piers.)
§Tuesday, 3 December, 1807, the 9th Assembly met for the 2nd time. Governor Wentworth was not there for the opening as Lady Wentworth was "dangerously ill," Chief Justice Blowers read the speech.
§December 22, 1807. An Embargo Act was passed in Washington.
§Property and tax paying qualifications for voting abolished in New Jersey for white males. (Maryland followed in 1810.)
§The continent is now being tied together and mapped all the way to the Pacific. David Thompson (1770-1857), surveyor and geographer, was making sense out of the observations and explorations of the past and the present.
§In Europe: "The year ends stormily. After having bombarded Copenhagen and captured all the Danish fleet, war was proclaimed against Denmark on the 4th of November. On the 8th of the month, Portugal was compelled by Napoleon to confiscate British property, and shut ports against England." (John Ashton.) Ashton noted that the King of Portugal and his family fled "to the Brazils" protected by a British squadron in November of 1808.
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[Backward In Time (1806)]