Edward Cornwallis
Governor of Nova Scotia | |
---|---|
In office 1749–1752 | |
Monarch | George II |
Preceded by | Richard Philipps |
Succeeded by | Peregrine Hopson |
Governor of Gibraltar | |
In office 14 June 1761 – 1 January 1776 | |
Monarch | George II |
Preceded by | Earl of Home |
Succeeded by | Baron Heathfield |
Personal details | |
Born | 5 March 1713 London, England |
Died | 14 January 1776 Lieutenant General | (aged 62)
Unit | 8th Foot |
Commands | 20th Foot, 40th Foot, 24th Foot |
Battles/wars | War of the Austrian Succession Father Le Loutre's War Seven Years' War |
Edward Cornwallis (5 March [
Cornwallis arrived in Nova Scotia during a period of conflict with the local indigenous
Despite the war footing, Cornwallis' administration would establish the Nova Scotian government, consisting of an Executive and Legislative Council, governed by the first constitution in a Canadian colony.[2] It instituted the first British law courts in Canada; established a public school for orphans; and respected religious diversity through separation of church and state.[3][4] It recruited European immigrants to Halifax, establishing the first Jewish community, the first ethnic German community, made up of Protestants from Germany and Switzerland, and the first Protestant dissenting congregation in a Canadian colony.[5]
Cornwallis is commemorated in Nova Scotia in the naming of its rivers, parks, streets, towns, and buildings. Such historic commemoration of Cornwallis has become controversial because of the extirpation proclamation.[6] In Halifax, there were numerous protests at a statue of Cornwallis in a downtown park, leading to its removal. A Halifax church, junior high school, street and park all are no longer named after Cornwallis. Other municipalities are also removing Cornwallis' name.
Early life
Cornwallis' grandfather, Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, was First Lord of the Admiralty. His maternal grandfather was Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, a Governor of Ireland (1682-1684). Cornwallis was the son of Charles, 4th Baron Cornwallis, and Lady Charlotte Butler, daughter of the Earl of Arran and his wife.[7] The Cornwallis family possessed estates at Culford in Suffolk and the Channel Islands.[7]
Cornwallis and his twin brother, Frederick Cornwallis, were made royal pages at the age of 12.[7] They were enrolled at Eton at age 14. Their older brother, Stephen Cornwallis, the third son born, was a career officer and rose to the rank of major-general in the Army.[citation needed]
Initially it was not determined which twin brother would enter the church and which the military. The matter was decided by accident: one day, Frederick fell and the injury paralysed his arm. He would take the religious path.
Military career
In the 20th regiment, led by Brig. General Thomas Bligh, Edward Cornwallis participated in the Battle of Fontenoy during the War of the Austrian Succession. He fought under Colonel Craig, who was killed in action. Cornwallis took over command of the regiment and organised a retreat. Cornwallis's regiment lost eight officers and 385 men. While the retreat was respected by the military, the British public chided expedition for their losses.[9]
Cornwallis played an important role in suppressing the
In 1747 Cornwallis was made a
Governor of Nova Scotia
Founding of Halifax
The
Cornwallis immediately had to decide where to site the town. Settlement organizers in England had recommended Point Pleasant, due to its close access to the ocean and ease of defence. His naval advisers opposed this site because it lacked shelter and had shallows preventing the docking of ocean-going ships. They wanted the town to be located at the head of Bedford Basin, a sheltered location with deep water. Others favoured Dartmouth.[citation needed]
Cornwallis decided to land the settlers and build the town at the site of present-day Downtown Halifax; it was halfway up the harbour with deep water, and protected by a natural, defensible hill (later known as Citadel Hill). By 24 July, the plans of the town had been drawn up. In August lots were drawn to award settlers their town plots in a settlement that was to be named "Halifax" after Lord Halifax, the President of the Board of Trade and Plantations. Lord Halifax (likely his staff) had drawn up the expedition plans for the British Government.[1]
Father Le Loutre's War
When Cornwallis arrived in Halifax, there had already been a decades-long history of the Mi'kmaq participating in raids on British settlements in present-day Maine, often allied with French colonists in continuing national tensions. Both sides took captives, sometimes for ransom or adoption by First Nations. (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns
Mi'kmaq leaders met at
"The place where you are, where you are building dwellings, where you are now building a fort, where you want, as it were, to enthrone yourself, this land of which you want to make yourself absolute master, this land belongs to me".[22]
Mi'kmaq leaders regarded the Halifax settlement as "a great theft that you have perpetrated against me."[22]
Cornwallis sought to project British military power throughout Nova Scotia by establishing forts in the largest Acadian communities, at
To stop the raids on the British settlements and pressure the natives into submission, Cornwallis announced an
In May 1751, the Mi'kmaq mounted their largest attack on British settlers with the
As Governor, Cornwallis reported to the Board of Trade of Britain. The Board repeatedly expressed concern to Cornwallis for overspending: over the amount of bread delivered, the cost of arming Chignecto. In March 1751, Cornwallis was told that he would lose the confidence of parliament unless he refrained from overspending in the future. Cornwallis replied that the Board had underestimated the task of establishing Halifax under such hostile conditions and that to "flatter Your Lordships with hopes of savings" would be "dissimulation of the worst kind."[1]
Seven Years' War
In November 1756 Cornwallis was one of three colonels who were ordered to proceed to Gibraltar and from there embark for
The officers faced court martial on "suspicion of disobedience of orders and neglect of duty."[29] Byng was found guilty and executed. Cornwallis testified that he had not disobeyed orders, but that it was "impracticable" to land at Menorca due to stiff French defences. Further, he said he was following Byng's command. "I looked upon myself as under the command of the admiral and should have thought it my duty to have obeyed him", he testified.[29]
Cornwallis was also one of the senior officers in the September 1757
Mordaunt was arrested and faced court martial. Cornwallis testified that an attempted landing at Rochefort would have been "dangerous, almost impracticable and madness."[31]
Governor of Gibraltar
Cornwallis served as the governor of Gibraltar from 14 June 1761 to January 1776 when he died at the age of 63.
Personal life
In 1763, Cornwallis married Mary Townshend, daughter of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend and Dorothy Townshend (Walpole), the sister of Robert Walpole. His marriage to Mary did not produce any children. His brother, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis married Mary's half sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Charles and his first wife, Elizabeth Pelham. Through his brother's marriage, he became uncle of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis.[citation needed]
Commemorations and controversies in Nova Scotia
Several buildings, (
These commemorations of Cornwallis have become controversial in Nova Scotia. Cornwallis Junior High School was renamed
The statue became the site of several Mi'kmaw protests in 2017 and the city established a committee to determine how to deal with the issue. Disturbed by lack of progress, in January 2018 the Assembly of Mi'kmaq Chiefs called for immediate removal of the statue.[36] The Cornwallis statue was covered with a tarpaulin, then removed by order of Halifax Regional Council on 30 January 2018 and placed into storage.[37] Council worked with Mi'kmaw Chiefs to establish a task force to examine the commemoration of Cornwallis and the final disposition of the statue, as well as how best to commemorate Indigenous history in the Halifax Regional Municipality.[37]
On 28 January 2019, Temma Frecker, a Nova Scotia teacher at The Booker School, was awarded the Governor General's History Award for her class's proposal to return the statue to Cornwallis Park as part of a larger commemoration of regional ethnic groups. They suggested that the Cornwallis statue be installed among three other statues: Acadian Noël Doiron; Viola Desmond, a civil rights activist and Black Nova Scotian; and Mi'kmaw Chief John Denny Jr. The four statutes would be positioned as if in a conversation with each other, discussing their accomplishments and struggles.[38][39]
The Canadian Coast Guard vessel CCGS Edward Cornwallis was renamed CCGS Kopit Hopson 1752 in honor of Mi'kmaq Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope and governor of Nova Scotia Peregrine Hopson.[40]
In September 2018, a petition was started by a Halifax resident requesting Cornwallis Street in North End, Halifax be renamed to honour the prominent human rights advocate Rocky Jones.[41] The petition was signed by over 1,700 people, and presented to Halifax City Council by the area's City Councillor.[42] The petition to name the street after Jones was again presented to Halifax Regional Council in October 2021, with 9,330 signatures.[43] Council decided to rename the street and invited submission by the general public. A task force struck by Council has recommended naming the street New Horizons Street after the New Horizons Baptist Church. A short list of suggestions from submissions by the general public was gathered and a further poll was held to select a final name.[44] "Nora Bernard Street", named after the late Mi'kmaq activist Nora Bernard, topped the public poll. In December 2022, Halifax council voted in favour of the new name, which took effect in October 2023.[45]
In 2021, Cornwallis Park in Halifax was renamed "Peace and Friendship Park" by the Regional Municipality of Halifax.[46]
See also
- Military history of Nova Scotia
- Military history of the Mi'kmaq people
- Military history of the Acadians
- Groom of the Chamber
Notes
- ^ ... from 1713 to 1749 Nova Scotia was neglected by England, but the crafty designs of the French to acquire by fraud what they could not obtain by force drew the attention of the British public to the importance of the colony, and encouragements were held out to retired officers, &c. to whom officers of grants of land were made; 3760 adventurers were embarked with their families for the colony; Parliament granted 40,000ℓ. for their support, and they landed at Chebucto harbour, where the town of Halifax was soon erected by the new emigrants under the command of their Governor the Hon. Edward Cornwallis Martin 1837, p.7
- ^ For some contemporary commentators, the original proclamation's reference to the bounty applying to "every Indian" created confusion over whether or not the bounty targeted only Mi'kmaw men or all Mi'kmaw people. Cornwallis' later instructions to Cobb clarifies that the initial bounty was offered only for Mi'kmaw males and the instructions added a reward for taking Mi'kmaw women and children as captives.
References
- ^ a b c Beck (1979)
- ^ Rieksts, Mark (1 January 2013). "The Constitutions of the Maritime Provinces". Law Now.
- ^ Tuttle, Charles Richard (5 March 1877). "Tuttle's Popular History of the Dominion of Canada, with Art Illustrations: From the Earliest Settlement of the British-American Colonies to the Present Time: Together with Portrait Engravings and Biographical Sketches of the Most Distinguished Men of the Nation". D. Downie – via Google Books.
- ^ Campbell, Duncan (5 March 1873). Nova Scotia, in Its Historical, Mercantile and Industrial Relations. J. Lovell. p. 410 – via Internet Archive.
halliburton history of nova scotia.
- ^ Sheldon Godfrey and Judy Godfrey. "Search Out the Land", The Jews and the Growth of Equality in British Colonial America, 1740–1867. McGill Queen's University Press. 1997, pp. 76–77;Bell, Winthrop Pickard. The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia: The History of a Piece of Arrested British Colonial Policy in the Eighteenth Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961
- ^ a b Tattrie, John (11 March 2012). "Meet the real Edward Cornwallis". The Chronicle Herald. Archived from the original on 18 July 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Story – Honorable Edward Cornwallis". www.mastermason.com. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
- ^ Tattrie (2013), p. 36
- ^ Tattrie (2013), p. 20
- ^ Tattrie (2013), p. 28
- ^ Plank (2005), p. 67
- ^ Tattrie (2013), p. 29
- ^ Tattrie (2013), p. 31
- ^ Parliament, Great Britain (1812). Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England: 1741-1743. R. Bagshaw.
- ^ CORNWALLIS, Hon. Edward (1713-76), of Essington, Herts. (1970). "Romney R. Sedgwick". In Sedgwick, Romney (ed.). The House of Commons 1715-1754. The History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Raddall (1948), pp. 24–25
- ^ Scott, Tod (2016). "Mi'kmaw Armed Resistance to British Expansion in Northern New England (1676–1761)". Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society. 19: 1–18.
- ^ a b Grenier (2008)
- ^ Reid & Baker (2008)
- ^ Drake (1870), p. 134
- ^ Patterson (1994), p. 129
- ^ a b Johnston (2008), pp. 38–40
- ^ Olive Dickason, LOUISBOURG AND THE INDIANS: A STUDY IN IMPERIAL RACE RELATIONS, 1713–1760, University of Ottawa, 1971, at p. 138, referencing Cornwallis' instructions to Capt. Silvanus Cobb, commanding the sloop York, 13 January 1750
- ^ "The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer". HathiTrust. 1751. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2017. Note: The newspaper article has the date of the increase of the bounty wrong, saying that the amount was increased "four months" from the day the letter was written, but it was nine months later.
- ^ Plank (1996), p. 34
- ^ "Correspondence of William Shirley: governor of Massachusetts and military commander in America, 1731–1760". archive.org. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
- ^ Plank (1996), pp. 33–34
- ^ Tattrie (2013), p. 212
- ^ a b The Report of the General Officers, Appointed to enquire into the conduct of Major General Stuart, and Colonels Cornwallis and the Earl of Effingham, 8 December 1756.
- ^ Tattrie (2013), pp. 217–220
- ^ The Proceedings of a General Court-Martial held at Whitehall upon the Trial of Lieutenant-General Sit John Mordaunt.
- ^ "Cornwallis Junior High officially renamed". CTV News. 26 January 2012.
- ^ "Halifax church drops Cornwallis name, now known as New Horizons Baptist Church - Halifax | Globalnews.ca". globalnews.ca. 7 May 2018.
- ^ Bundale, Brett (17 September 2017). "Black church to cast aside Cornwallis' name". DurhamRegion.com. The Canadian Press. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ "Cornwallis Street to be renamed to Nora Bernard Street". www.halifax.ca. 13 December 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
- ^ The Canadian Press (28 January 2018). "Mi'kmaq chiefs call for immediate removal of Cornwallis statue". The Chronicle Herald. Archived from the original on 17 February 2018.
- ^ a b Campbell, Francis (30 January 2018). "Halifax council votes to remove Cornwallis statue". The Chronicle Herald. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018.
- ^ Jan 26, Anjuli Patil · CBC News · Posted; January 26, 2019 4:09 PM AT | Last Updated. "Cornwallis statue project nets Port Williams teacher prestigious award | CBC News". CBC.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "2018 Finalists for the Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Teaching - Canada's History". Archived from the original on 30 January 2019. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
- ^ "Burying Sir John A. Macdonald". 18 December 2020.
- ^ Boon, Jacob. "Petition to rename Cornwallis Street delivered to city hall". The Coast Halifax. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- ^ "September 18, 2018 Halifax Regional Council Action Summary" (PDF). City of Halifax. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- ^ "HALIFAX REGIONAL COUNCIL MINUTES" (PDF). Retrieved 22 November 2021.
- ^ Willick, Francis (1 January 2022). "New names for Halifax's Cornwallis Street range from commemorative to random". cbc.ca. CBC. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
- ^ Seguin, Nicola (12 December 2022). "Cornwallis Street in Halifax to be renamed to Nora Bernard Street". CBC News.
- ^ Frisko, Bruce (21 June 2021). "In the name of Peace and Friendship: Former Cornwallis Park in Halifax gets a new name". CTV News Atlantic. Retrieved 8 January 2024 – via atlantic.ctvnews.ca.
- ^ MacIssac, Alex (2 June 2022). "Bridgewater changes name of Cornwallis Street, citing treatment of Indigenous people". CTV News Atlantic. Retrieved 8 January 2024 – via atlantic.ctvnews.ca.
- ^ Fairclough, Ian (27 September 2023). "Kentville approves new name for Cornwallis Street through town". SaltWire. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
- ^ Moore, Angel (14 December 2023). "Mi'kmaw in Nova Scotia scratching their heads after suggestion for new street name". APTN. Retrieved 8 January 2024 – via aptnnews.ca.
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- Peotto, Thomas (January 2018). Dark Mimesis: a cultural history of the scalping paradigm (PhD thesis). Vancouver: University of British Columbia. hdl:2429/64367.
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (History)
- Plank, Geoffrey (1996). "The two Majors Cope: the boundaries of nationality in mid-18th century Nova Scotia". Acadiensis. XXV (2): 18–40.
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- Plank, Geoffrey (2005). "New England soldiers in the Saint John River valley: 1758–1760". In Stephen J. Hornsby; John G. Reid (eds.). New England and the Maritime Provinces: Connections and Comparisons. McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 59–73. ISBN 9780773528659.
- Raddall, Thomas Head (1948). Halifax: Warden of the North. McClelland & Stewart.
- JSTOR 10.3138/9781442688032.12.
- Tattrie, Jon (2013). Cornwallis: The Violent Birth of Halifax. Pottersfield Press. ISBN 9781897426487.
- Marshall, Dianne (2011). Heroes of the Acadian Resistance:The Story of Joseph Beausoleil Broussard and Pierre II Surette 1702-1765. Formac Publishing Company Limited Halifax. ISBN 978-0-88780-978-1.