New Ireland (Maine)
New Ireland was a Crown colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain twice established in modern-day Maine after British forces captured the area during the American Revolutionary War and again during the War of 1812. The colony lasted four years during the Revolution, and eight months during the War of 1812. At the end of each war the British ceded the land to the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Ghent, respectively.
American Revolution
In 1779 the British adopted a strategy to capture parts of Maine, especially around Penobscot Bay, and transform it into a new colony to be called "New Ireland". The scheme was promoted by exiled Loyalists John Caleff (1725–1812),[1][2] John Nutting (fl. 1775–1785)[3][4][5] and Anglo-Irishman William Knox (1732–1810).[6][7][8] It was intended to be a permanent colony for Loyalists and a base for military action during the war.[9]
On 30 May 1779, eight British ships of war left from Halifax with 640 troops.
Although badly outnumbered, McLean and his British forces (the
The British established a fort, under the command of Campbell, protecting about 30 houses occupied by Loyalists attracted to the area. The fort housed captured American privateers and received trade from Halifax and New York. The guide who led the loyalists to the fort was discovered, tried by a court-martial under Major Burton, condemned and executed under the direction of Major General James Wadsworth. A party of 25 Loyalists subsequently went to Wadsworth's quarters and took him prisoner. He eventually escaped on 15 June 1781.[13][14] New Ireland was ceded to the Americans as part of the Paris peace settlement. Saltonstall and Revere were later court-martialed, charged with cowardice and insubordination; the boards found Saltonsall guilty, but acquitted Revere.
At the end of the
The New Ireland colony and the Penobscot expedition was fictionalised in the 2010 novel The Fort by British author Bernard Cornwell.
War of 1812
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Military history of Nova Scotia |
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During the
The Treaty of Ghent returned this territory to the United States. The British left in April 1815, at which time they collected £10,750 obtained from tariff duties at Castine. The brief life of the colony yielded customs revenues, called the "Castine Fund", which were subsequently used to finance a military library in Halifax and found Dalhousie College.[19] Dalhousie University has a street named "Castine Way".[20]
See also
Notes
- ^ "Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society". 1894.
- ^ "Biography – CALEFF, JOHN – Volume V (1801-1820) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
- ^ Yankee Colonies across America: Cities upon the Hills By Chaim M. Rosenberg
- ^ The Life and Surprising Adventures of John Nutting, Cambridge Loyalist: And His Strange Connection with the Penobscot Expedition of 1779 by Samuel Francis Batchelder
- ^ "Provincial Archives of New Brunswick".
- ^ "William Knox on American taxation, 1769". Boston, Old South Association. 1917.
- ^ "Knox, William (1732-1810)".
- ^ William Knox: The Life and Thought of an Eighteenth-Century Imperialist By Leland J. Bellot
- ^ Robert W. Sloan, "New Ireland: Men in Pursuit of a Forlorn Hope, 1779-1784," Maine Historical Society Quarterly, 1979, Vol. 19 Issue 2, pp 73-90
- ^ Yankee Colonies across America: Cities upon the Hills By Chaim M. Rosenberg, p. 7
- ISBN 0-670-03324-3, 2004, pp. 139-140
- ^ James S. Leamon, "The Search for Security: Maine after Penobscot," Maine Historical Society Quarterly, 1982, Vol. 21 Issue 3, pp 119-153
- ^ p. 613
- ^ p. 184
- ^ Coolidge, Austin J.; Mansfield, John B. (1859). A History and Description of New England. Boston, Massachusetts: A.J. Coolidge. pp. 50, 87–90.
- ^ Ann Gorman Condon, The Envy of the American States: The Loyalist Dream for New Brunswick (1984)
- ISBN 0-02-926880-X.
- ^ "New Ireland: How Maine almost became part of Canada at the end of the War of 1812". National Post. September 3, 2014.
- ^ "Sir John Coape Sherbrooke". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. University of Toronto. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
- ^ D.C. Harvey, "The Halifax–Castine expedition," Dalhousie Review, 18 (1938–39): 207–13.
References
- Samuel Francis Batchelder. The Life and Surprising Adventures of John Nutting, Cambridge Loyalist: And His Strange Connection with the Penobscot Expedition of 1779 (1912)
- Joseph Williamson. The Proposed Province of New Ireland. Collections of the Maine Historical Society 1904
- R. W. Sloan, “New Ireland: loyalists in eastern Maine during the American revolution” (phd thesis, Mich. State Univ., East Lansing, 1971).
- Collections of the Maine Historical Society
- Collections of the Maine Historical Society. Ser. 1, Vol. 7
- Correspondence pertaining to Penobscot and New Ireland. Collections of the Maine Historical Society
- THE EXODUS OF THE LOYALISTS from Penobscot to Passamaquoddy By WILBUR H. SIEBERT, A. M. The Ohio State University. Columbus.1914