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Key Events in the History of Nova Scotia: 1820.
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[Backward In Time (1819)]
[Forward In Time (1821)]
§January 29, 1820: George III died, George IV takes the throne, due to his father's derangement he had been the Prince Regent since 1810. A proclamation was made at Halifax on 7th of April.
§During February, England issues gold ingots ("Ricardos"), freely exchangeable with its paper money. By the following year (1821) England was fully on the gold exchange.
§General election in Britain.
§The winter has been "more fine & mild than ever before known." (Dalhousie.)
§Saturday, April 8th, Sir John Wentworth, aged 84, dies at Halifax.
§April 20th: The Eleventh Assembly of the Nova Scotia Legislature, first convened in 1819, was Dissolved.
§April 28th: Election Writ issued; Returnable July 10th. "The election lasted three days ... Freeholders or owners of real estate only had the privilege of voting at this period."
§During the April term, the Supreme Court at Halifax sentenced a young man to two years of hard labour, he "had published a pamphlet, imputing blame to the magistrates in pecuniary matters, and to H. M. council, for neglect of duty in not auditing their accounts according to law."
§Maine became a state in 1820, carved out of the state of Massachusetts.
§The Missouri Compromise: In 1820 the U.S. Congress passed an act which admitted the State of Maine as slave free state and Missouri as a slave state, thus keeping the number of the slave and anti-slave states equal. By the Missouri Compromise the federal territory above 36 degrees 30 minutes free; below that can be slave territory.
§A Factory Bill prohibiting children under the age of nine to work in cotton mills is passed in England.
§Arthur Thistlewood, one of the leaders of the Cato Street Conspiracy (to kill Castlereagh), is hung on May 1st.
§May 22nd, The cornerstone for Dalhousie College is laid by Lord Dalhousie.
§In June, Caroline, George IV's wife, returned to England after a number of years of living in Europe away from her husband. The Caroline Crisis then ensued; it "swallowed up every other topic from June to November."
§June 1st, 1820, Sir James Kempt, after a 42 day passage from England, arrived at Halifax and, next day, is sworn in as Lieutenant-governor.
§On Friday, the 9 June, Bishop Burke, attended by his clergy, laid the corner stone of the present St. Mary's cathedral in Halifax.
§"Francis Beauford, hydrographer to the Admiralty, began the accurate series of charts covering the entire globe known as Admiralty pilots."
§In referring to Yellow fever, or Yellow Jack and how it would run through a ship's crew reference need be but made to the 26-gun Tamar which arrived at Halifax from Jamaica with scarcely enough men to bring her into harbour; her captain, Arthur Snow, and 75 of her crew having died during the voyage."
§By an act of the legislature, the province issues notes to the extent of £20,000 in denominations of £2 and £1."
§August 7: John Wallace, the son of Michael Wallace is appointed comptroller of H. M. customs at Halifax.
§Wednesday, September 6th: "A fair and cattle show were held on Camp Hill, on the Halifax Common ... The judges of the cattle were John Albro, William Young, John Starr, Peter McNab, and Frederick Major." Sir James Kempt attended and distributed money prizes.
§September 12th, 1820: Fire which starts at Little Brook is carried by a strong south west wind burns a considerable part of the Acadian community on St. Marys Bay.
§October: The newly appointed the Royal Governor of Nova Scotia, Sir James Kempt, within four months of his arrival in Nova Scotia, made a tour of Cape Breton.
§October 9th, 1820, proclamation re-annexing, as a county, Cape Breton to Nova Scotia.
§"In 1820 the two provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had as many people as Upper Canada; in 1850 Upper Canada was twice as populous."
§Epidemics of cholera and yellow fever break out in New York City, which, by this time, with a population of 150,000, is the largest city in the United States.
§Dec 20th: The Twelfth Assembly of the Nova Scotia Legislature convened.
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[Backward In Time (1819)]