1773 in Canada
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{{More citations needed|date=July 2022}}
{{Year in Canada|1773}}
{{History of Canada}}
Events from the year 1773 in Canada.
Incumbents
=Governors=
Events
- December – Prominent French Canadians petition the King to restore their ancient laws and accord them the rights of British subjects, reminding him that five-sixths of the seigniories belong to Frenchmen. They represent that the Labrador Coast and fisheries, now alienated to Newfoundland, should revert to Canada. They prefer a Legislative Council, nominated by the King, because less expensive than an Elective Assembly.
- Lord Dartmouth promises Canadians just and considerate treatment respecting their religion.
- Montreal Ft. La Traite, on Churchill River, by Frobisher to cut into HBC's trade.
Births
- January 14 – William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, diplomat and governor general (d.1857)
- March 29 – Samuel Street Wilmot, surveyor, tanner, farmer, justice of the peace, and assemblyman in Upper Canada (d. 1856)
=Full date unknown=
- Joseph Willcocks, diarist, office holder, printer, publisher, journalist, politician, and army officer (d.1814)
Deaths
- January 31 – Sebastian Zouberbuhler, merchant and politician in Nova Scotia
Historical documents
=Canada=
Attorney General says minimize change to laws of Canada, which should conform to its form of government, religion and revenue (Note: "savage" used)"Report of Attorney General, Edwd. Thurlow" (January 22, 1773), [https://primarydocuments.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DocsConsHist1759Can1907.pdf Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791] (1907), pgs. 306-10 (PDF frames 319-24). Accessed 21 July 2022
Two Exchequer-linked MPs say ministry has been asleep for 7 years while Canada needed proper government; Lord North says reforms will come in time[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266347 "London; April 24"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 444 (July 15, 1773), 1st-2nd pgs. Accessed 20 July 2022
Earl of Dartmouth on Quebec policies (religion, western territory) to be addressed shortly, plus cases involving Indigenous people (Note: "savages" used)"Dartmouth to Cramahé" (December 1, 1773), [https://primarydocuments.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DocsConsHist1759Can1907.pdf Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791] (1907), pgs. 338-40 (PDF frames 352-4). Accessed 12 August 2022
Ninety freeholders sign petition to lieutenant-governor for popular assembly in Quebec, citing its good effect on "peace, welfare, and good government"[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.36871/16 "To the honourable Hector Theophilus Cramahé(....)"] An Account of the Proceedings of the British [in] Quebec [for] An House of Assembly[....], pgs. 11-15 (Images 16-20; delivered December 3, 1773). (See also petitioners' [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.36871/11 attempts to recruit Canadians] (texts in French) and [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.36871/120 Canadians' own petition] with [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.36871/131 English translation]) Accessed 14 July 2022
Indigenous man from St.-Francois in Boston to seek "satisfaction for the deaths of several Indians[...]killed at different times in the woods by the English""Boston, May 10," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730525&printsec=frontpage Number 143] (May 25, 1773), last pg. Accessed 18 July 2022
21st Regiment leaving Quebec after 1 year, during which only 4 soldiers died - matchless record, even against "young and healthy Corps" from Britain[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266347 "Quebec, July 15"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 444 (July 15, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
"Marie Louise Blanchard was inhumanly beat and abus'd by some Soldiers in such a Manner that she expir'd" next morning[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266346 "Avertissements; Publick Notice(....)"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 443 (July 8, 1773), 3rd pg. (See [https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266347 $100 reward and pardon] offered for information (3rd pg.), and [https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266351 acquital] for lack of evidence against six men tried for murder (3rd pg.)) Accessed 20 July 2022
Gazette co-owner's widow asks debtors pay money owed partnership so she can clear his debts and assume partnership management now denied her[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266347 "Mary Gilmore(....)"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 448 (August 12, 1773), 3rd pg. (See [https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266352 partner's denial] of her assertions (3rd pg.), [https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266354 her reply] to him (2nd pg.) and his response (3rd pg.)) Accessed 20 July 2022
Pierre Ignace Dubois, baker, and his wife, Therese Charlotte Campion, buy stone house on Notre-Dame St., Montreal, for 6,500 shillings[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266321 "Avertissements; Publick Notice(....)"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 418 (January 7, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 19 July 2022
Surveyor-general, 4 Abenaki and 2 Hurons complete 3-month trek from Quebec to Boston to find best route for road between Canada and Massachusetts[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266370 "Providence, October 30"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 466 (December 16, 1773), 2nd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
=Nova Scotia=
Temporary stop to shipping Nova Scotia grain, flour, meal or pease from Bay of Fundy ports before threshing season, and "to prevent a Scarcity thereof"[https://bnald.lib.unb.ca/legislation/act-prevent-limited-time-exportation-or-shipping-wheat-rye-barley-flour-meal-and-pease "An Act to prevent for a limitted Time the Exportation or Shipping of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Flour, Meal, and Pease, from any of the Ports or Places in this Province, within the Bay of Fundy"] (1773), 13 George III - Chapter 5 (Session 1), British North American Legislative Database, 1758-1867. Accessed 14 July 2022
Ed. Donahoo, having pled guilty to "assault with an intent to ravish" 8-year-old, is sentenced to 1 hour in pillory, £10 fine and 1 month in prison"Halifax, August 17," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730817&printsec=frontpage Number 152] (August 17, 1773), Page 4 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
500 acre lot of cleared land for lease is on former site of Indigenous settlement at edge of 9-mile-long Eel Lake, between Barrington and Yarmouth"To be Let[...]About 500 Acres", The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730112&printsec=frontpage Number 124] (January 12, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 15 July 2022
Late Haligonian's estate at auction includes wharf, farm and other lots, fish barrels, seine, salmon nets, and "also a Negro named Prince" in private sale"To be Sold, By Public Auction," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730629&printsec=frontpage Number 148] (June 29, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
Missionary's Gospel guide is for poor people of Lunenburg to understand "Christian doctrine and Christian duty, as far as it is necessary in your Station"[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.94373/8 "To All the Settlers and Inhabitants of the Township of Lunenburg(...)and especially the Poor, whether bound or free"] The Gospel of Christ Preached to the Poor, pg. (III). Accessed 14 July 2022
Books for sale in Halifax: "Macaulay's history of England," "Spectators, Tatlers, and Guardian," "Pope's Works, 4 vol." and "Smollet's Don Quixotte, 4 vol""New Books," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730608&printsec=frontpage Number 145] (June 8, 1773), 2nd pg. (See also criticism of [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730622&printsec=frontpage "Dr. Cadogen's Dissertation on the Gout, and all other Chronic Diseases"] one of these books (Page 4 of 4)) Accessed 18 July 2022
With death of long-time Halifax schoolmaster, another plans to teach "Reading and Writing English, Bookkeeping, practical Geometry, Mensuration" etc."The Subscriber," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730629&printsec=frontpage Number 148] (June 29, 1773), Page 2 of 4. (See also [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730622&printsec=frontpage death notice] of former school master (Page 4 of 4, bottom right corner)) Accessed 18 July 2022
"Anna Fisher [will open a school in Halifax to] Teach Children the Rudiments of Reading and Writing, Sewing, and all sorts of Needle-Work""Anna Fisher," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730504&printsec=frontpage Number 140] (May 4, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
"John Rea, Master of Musick in the 59th Regt. takes this opportunity of informing the Public, that he teaches the German Flute""John Rea," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17730629&printsec=frontpage Number 148] (June 29, 1773), Page 2 of 4. Accessed 18 July 2022
"The nights are now of a great length, therefore take care that you do not sleep too much, that being as hurtful to the body as too little."January 1773, "The Nova-Scotia Calendar; Or an Almanack; For the year of the Christian Æræ, 1773," [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.39165/9 Image 9]. (See also poem [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.39165/35 "On Sleep"]) Accessed 14 July 2022
=Prince Edward Island=
St. John's Island "settlers turn themselves to the farming business," and their rich soil "produces excellent crops of the finest wheat in America"[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266370 "A Gentleman returned from the island of St. John's(....)"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 466 (December 16, 1773), 2nd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
Because Island lacks enough qualified jurors in each county, criminal and civil cases will be tried in Queen's County with any Island jurors[https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_01818/6 "An Act for the more easy and effectual Trial(...)of what nature or kind soever(....)"] George III, 13th Year, Chapter 8, The Statutes at Large, of Prince Edward Island[...]1773 to 1833, inclusive (1834), pgs. 6-8. Accessed 23 February 2023
=Newfoundland=
Royal Navy cruisers are to seize "all mercantile goods, spirituous liquors, &c." that cannot be considered Newfoundland fishers' ship stores[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266362 "July 12"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 458 (October 21, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
=Labrador=
George Cartwright's Inuit guests in England enjoy visit, but all but one die on return to Labrador and their people's "violent, frantic expressions of grief"C.W. Townsend (ed.), Captain Cartwright and His Labrador Journal (1911), [https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/cns/id/61716 pgs. 128-39] Accessed 15 July 2022
Cartwright on his "slave girl's" father, to whom he traded bait-skiff for her and who died, leaving Cartwright "a legacy of two wives and three children"C.W. Townsend (ed.), "Sunday, October 10, 1773," Captain Cartwright and His Labrador Journal (1911), [https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/cns/id/61731 pg. 143] (See also Cartwright takes one child to England and has him fatally [https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/cns/id/61734 inoculated for smallpox]) Accessed 15 July 2022
=Elsewhere=
"Sleeping at the edge of the sea" - Hudson's Bay Company loses trade of inland Indigenous people to "numerous and indefatigable" Canadian tradersEdward Umfreville, The Present State of Hudson's Bay (1790), [http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/50/83.html pgs. 70-1] (See also [http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/50/220.html HBC in 1773 "begin their inland voyages"] to detriment of Indigenous people) Accessed 15 July 2022
Alexander Henry the elder sets miners to work on vein of copper on Lake Superior north shore, but difficulty of work and diminishing vein end operationAlexander Henry the elder, Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories[....] (1809), [http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/45/243.html pg. 234] Accessed 15 July 2022
"We have certain advices from Boston" that people "dressed like Indians" went on East India Company ship and threw overboard about 340 chests of tea"Halifax, Dec. 28," The Nova-Scotia Gazette: and the Weekly Chronicle, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=4p3FJGzxjgAC&dat=17731228&printsec=frontpage Number 171] (December 28, 1773), Page 3 of 4. (See also [https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-20-02-0266 letter] with details of events leading to and likely results of Tea Party) Accessed 18 July 2022
John Harrison, inventor of marine chronometer for determining longitude, receives £9,585 as final installment of £20,000 prize "for his useful discovery"[https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4266372 "On Saturday Mr. Harrison(....)"] The Quebec Gazette, Nomb. 468 (December 30, 1773), 3rd pg. Accessed 20 July 2022
References
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Category:1773 in North America