THE 1775 YARMOUTH MEMORIAL
The 1775 Yarmouth Memorial was a petition from 82 residents of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Governor Francis Legge requesting to remain neutral during the American Revolution. It was rejected as inconsistent with the duty of loyal subjects of King George III. Governor Francis Legge served as Governor of Nova Scotia from 1772 - 1776. Born in England around 1719, he had served as an officer the British army in America during the Seven Years War and while Governor raised The Royal Nova Scotia Volunteer Regiment.
Dated shortly after a raid on Yarmouth by American Privateers on 5 December 1775, the Memorial stated:
We the Subscribers inhabitants of the Town of Yarmouth, beg leave at this Critical and alarming time to address ourselves to your Excellency. We want to express to you the opinion we have of our Situation at present, and hope to be informed in what manner we may live and enjoy our Possessions. We do all of us profess to be true Friends and Loyal Subjects to George our King, we were almost all of us born in New England, we have Fathers, Brothers, and Sisters in that Country, divided betwixt natural affection to our nearest relatives, and good Faith and Friendship to our King and Country, we want to know, if we may be permitted at this time to lieve in a peaceable State as we look on that to be the only situation in which we with our Wives and Children can be in any tolerable degree safe, your Excellency cannot be unacquainted how easy a thing it is for those people, if they once suppose us their Enemies, to burn and destroy all before them in this Quarter. We are in no Capacity to defend ourselves. Few in number, and those few scattered up and down the Woods. Arms we are but poorly Accoutred with, Ammunition wwe have none, an alarming instance of our Weakness happened last Week two Armed Vessels Mounting eight Guns each, and one hundred twenty Men came into our Harbour about Ten o'clock in the Morning, having been informed before they came here that it was the day our light Infantry Company was to be Mustered, they repaired on Shore, went to the house where the Officers were, took them off, they offered no abuse to any one else, and say they will offer none provided we do nothing against them, but in Case we take up Arms against them, threaten us highly; As our situation is thus unhappy, we must beg of your Excellency not to be called io Action in this matter. If that cannot be granted wwe have nothing to do, but retire from our habitations either to Halifax or to New England. We beg of your Excellency not to conclude, as we desire to be Neuter, that we are in any measure disaffected to our King or his Government/ For we do assure your Excellency we never have done, neither have we any disposition to do anything whatever by way of Aiding or Assisting the Americans in their Opposition to Great Britain. It is self preservation and that only which drives us at this time to make our request.
The Memorial highlights the divided loyalties of Nova Scotians at the start of the American Revolution with many being New Englanders by birth.
On 16 December 1775, Richard Bulkeley, Provincial Secretary, responded to the Memorial with a letter to the Magistrates and Inhabitants of the Township of Yarmouth. It stated:
The Memorial from the Inhabitants of Yarmouth has been laid before the Governor & Council and I am to acquaint you, that the request and proposition of the Memorialists could neither be received or Admitted, a Neutrality being utterly Absurd and inconsistent with the duty of the Subjects, who are always bound by the laws to take Arms in defence of Government, and oppose and Repel all Hostile Attempts and Invasions, that the duty they owe as Subjects cannot be dispensed with, and that they must be obedient to the Laws of this Province.
Bulkeley, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, was an administrator in Nova Scotia from 1749 until his death on 7 November 1800. He assisted 13 Governors from Cornwallis to Wentworth and was also Governor from 1791 - 1792. His former home is the oldest building in Halifax used as such, and was named the Carleton, after Sir Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester, who supervised the evacuation of the United Empire Loyalists to Nova Scotia after the American Revolution.
Further Reading:
Annals of Yarmouth and Barrington (Nova Scotia) In the Revolutionary War , by Edmund Duval Poole, published 1890
