Imprinting Britain: Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America 9780773583023

Citation preview

IMPRINTING BRITAIN

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M c Gill-Queen’s Studies in the History of Ideas Series Editor: Philip J. Cercone   1 Problems of Cartesianism Edited by Thomas M. Lennon, John M. Nicholas, and John W. Davis   2 The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity Gerald A. Press   3 Claude Buffier and Thomas Reid: Two Common-Sense Philosophers Louise Marcil-Lacoste   4 Schiller, Hegel, and Marx: State, Society, and the Aesthetic Ideal of Ancient Greece Philip J. Kain   5 John Case and Aristotelianism in Renaissance England Charles B. Schmitt   6 Beyond Liberty and Property: The Process of SelfRecognition in EighteenthCentury Political Thought J.A.W. Gunn   7 John Toland: His Methods, Manners, and Mind Stephen H. Daniel   8 Coleridge and the Inspired Word Anthony John Harding   9 The Jena System, 1804–5: Logic and Metaphysics G.W.F. Hegel Translation edited by John W. Burbidge and George di Giovanni Introduction and notes by H.S. Harris 10 Consent, Coercion, and Limit: The Medieval Origins of Parliamentary Democracy Arthur P. Monahan

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11 Scottish Common Sense in Germany, 1768–1800: A Contribution to the History of Critical Philosophy Manfred Kuehn 12 Paine and Cobbett: The Transatlantic Connection David A. Wilson 13 Descartes and the Enlightenment Peter A. Schouls 14 Greek Scepticism: Anti-Realist Trends in Ancient Thought Leo Groarke 15 The Irony of Theology and the Nature of Religious Thought Donald Wiebe 16 Form and Transformation: A Study in the Philosophy of Plotinus Frederic M. Schroeder 17 From Personal Duties towards Personal Rights: Late Medieval and Early Modern Political Thought, c. 1300–c. 1650 Arthur P. Monahan 18 The Main Philosophical Writings and the Novel Allwill Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi Translated and edited by George di Giovanni 19 Kierkegaard as Humanist: Discovering My Self Arnold B. Come 20 Durkheim, Morals, and Modernity W. Watts Miller

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21 The Career of Toleration: John Locke, Jonas Proast, and After Richard Vernon 22 Dialectic of Love: Platonism in Schiller’s Aesthetics David Pugh 23 History and Memory in Ancient Greece Gordon Shrimpton 24 Kierkegaard as Theologian: Recovering My Self Arnold B. Come 25 Enlightenment and Conservatism in Victorian Scotland: The Career of Sir Archibald Alison Michael Michie 26 The Road to Egdon Heath: The Aesthetics of the Great in Nature Richard Bevis 27 Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme: Theosophy – Hagiography – Literature Paolo Mayer 28 Enlightenment and Community: Lessing, Abbt, Herder, and the Quest for a German Public Benjamin W. Redekop 29 Jacob Burckhardt and the Crisis of Modernity John R. Hinde 30 The Distant Relation: Time and Identity in SpanishAmerican Fiction Eoin S. Thomson 31 Mr Simson’s Knotty Case: Divinity, Politics, and Due Process in Early EighteenthCentury Scotland Anne Skoczylas

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32 Orthodoxy and Enlightenment: George Campbell in the Eighteenth Century Jeffrey M. Suderman 33 Contemplation and Incarnation: The Theology of MarieDominique Chenu Christophe F. Potworowski 34 Democratic Legitimacy: Plural Values and Political Power F.M. Barnard 35 Herder on Nationality, Humanity, and History F.M. Barnard 36 Labeling People: French Scholars on Society, Race, and Empire, 1815–1849 Martin S. Staum 37 The Subaltern Appeal to Experience: Self-Identity, Late Modernity, and the Politics of Immediacy Craig Ireland

38 The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity and Beyond Stephen J.A. Ward 39 The Recovery of Wonder: The New Freedom and the Asceticism of Power Kenneth L. Schmitz 40 Reason and Self-Enactment in History and Politics: Themes and Voices of Modernity F.M. Barnard 41 The More Moderate Side of Joseph de Maistre: Views on Political Liberty and Political Economy Cara Camcastle

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42 Democratic Society and Human Needs Jeff Noonan 43 The Circle of Rights Expands: Modern Political Thought after the Reformation, 1521 (Luther) to 1762(Rousseau) Arthur P. Monahan 44 The Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament Janet Ajzenstat 45 Finding Freedom: Hegel’s Philosophy and the Emancipation of Women Sara MacDonald 46 When the French Tried to Be British: Party, Opposition, and the Quest for the Civil Disagreement, 1814–1848 J.A.W. Gunn 47 Under Conrad’s Eyes: The Novel as Criticism Michael John DiSanto 48 Media, Memory, and the First World War David Williams 49 An Aristotelian Account of Induction: Creating Something from Nothing Louis Groarke 50 Social and Political Bonds: A Mosaic of Contrast and Convergence F.M. Barnard 51 Archives and the Event of God: The Impact of Michel Foucault on Philosophical Theology David Galston 52 Between the Queen and the Cabby: Olympe de Gouges’s Rights of Women John R. Cole 53 Nature and Nurture in French Social Sciences, 1859–1914 and Beyond Martin S. Staum

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54 Public Passion: Rethinking the Grounds for Political Justice Rebecca Kingston 55 Rethinking the Political: The Sacred, Aesthetic Politics, and the Collège de Sociologie Simonetta Falasca-Zamponi 56 Materialist Ethics and Life-Value Jeff Noonan 57 Hegel’s Phenomenology: The Dialectical Justification of Philosophy’s First Principles Ardis B. Collins 58 The Social History of Ideas in Quebec, 1760–1896 Yvan Lamonde Translated by Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott 59 Ideas, Concepts, and Reality John W. Burbidge 60 The Enigma of Perception D.L.C. Maclachlan 61 Nietzsche’s Justice: Naturalism in Search of an Ethics Peter R. Sedgwick 62 The Idea of Liberty during the Age of Atlantic Revolutions, 1776–1838 Michel Ducharme Translated by Peter Feldstein 63 From White to Yellow: The Japanese in European Racial Thought, 1300–1735 Rotem Kowner 64 The Crisis of Modernity Augusto Del Noce Edited and translated by Carlo Lancellotti 65 Imprinting Britain: Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America Michael Eamon

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IMPRINTING BRITAIN

Newspapers, Sociability, and the Shaping of British North America Michael Eamon

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca

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©  McGill-Queen’s University Press 2015 isbn isbn isbn isbn

978-0-7735-4490-1 (cloth) 978-0-7735-4491-8 (paper) 978-0-7735-8302-3 (ePDF) 978-0-7735-8303-0 (ePUB)

Legal deposit first quarter 2015 Bibliothèque nationale du Québec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Eamon, Michael, 1972–, author Imprinting Britain: newspapers, sociability, and the shaping of British North America / Michael Eamon. (McGill-Queen’s studies in the history of ideas; 65) Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. isbn 978-0-7735-4490-1 (bound). – isbn 978-0-7735-4491-8 (pbk.). – isbn 978-0-7735-8302-3 (ePDF). – isbn 978-0-7735-8303-0 (ePUB) 1. Journalism – Social aspects – Nova Scotia – Halifax – History – 18th century.  2. Journalism – Social aspects – Québec (Province) – Québec – History – 18th century.  3. Canadian newspapers (English) – Nova Scotia – Halifax – History – 18th century.  4. Canadian newspapers (English) – Québec (Province) – Québec – History – 18th century.  5. Colonial cities – Nova Scotia – Halifax – History – 18th century.  6. Colonial cities – Québec (Province) – Québec – History – 18th century.  7. Canada – Civilization – British influences.  I. Title.  II. Series: McGill-Queen’s studies in the history of ideas; 65 PN4906.E24 2015

071'.1447109033

C2014-907720-3 C2014-907721-1

This book was typeset by Interscript in 10 / 12 New Baskerville.

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For Sam and Will

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Contents

Figures  xi Preface  xiii Introduction: The English-Language Press and the Formation of a Colonial Print Community in British North America  3 PART one  PRINT AS SOCIABILITY   1 Driving the Stage Coach: The Printers of Halifax and Quebec City 23   2 “Send me a Ton of Newspapers”: Readers and Reading Habits of the Colonial Print Community  46   3 “Directing Public Taste”: British Tradition, Social Control, and the Newspaper  67   4 Enlightened Print: Popular Science and Useful Knowledge in the Service of the Public  89 PART two  PRINT AND SOCIABILITY   5 Making Private Public: Print and the Promotion of Associative Life 113   6 With the “approbation of a numerous and respectable audience”: Newspapers and the Public Acceptance of Theatre  139   7 The Coffeehouse Elite: Print and the Fashioning of “Genteel” British Tradition  164

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Contents

Conclusion: The Colonial Print Community’s Imprint on British North America  187 Appendices

I

A Selection of Societies and Clubs in Halifax and Quebec City, 1760–1800 195

II A Selection of Plays Performed at Halifax and Quebec City as Recorded in Newspapers and in Printers’ Records  201 III A Selection of Public Houses Identified as Coffeehouses in the Newspapers of Quebec City and Halifax, 1764–1800  206 Bibliography 209 Index 277

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Figures

0.1 “A Plan for the Harbour of Chebucto and Town of Halifax,” by Moses Harris, c. 1750. A gift of Dr F. Forrest Musgrave, Dalhousie University Class of 1929, in 1971, Dalhousie Art Gallery Permanent Collection. Used with Permission.  5 0.2 “A plan of Quebec. Quebec the capital of New France or Canada ... Publish’d according to Act of Parliament Octobr. 1759 by E. Oakley & sold by J. Rocque near Round Court in the Strand,” Library and Archives Canada, National Map Collection, NMC-133349. 8 1.1 Front page of the First Halifax Gazette, 23 March 1752, Library and Archives Canada, National Newspaper Collection, nlc-2702.  26 4.1 Frontispiece, Almanach de Québec, 1792, by Samuel Neilson, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales de Québec, CoteBAnQ, RES / AG / 60. Used with Permission.  104 5.1 “The Governor’s House and St. Mather’s [St. Mathew’s] Meeting House, Hollis Street ... Halifax,” 1764, by Richard Short, after Dominic Serres, Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1990-53-1, C-002482. 129 7.1  “Lower Town, Quebec,” 1777, by James Hunter, Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1989-246-4, C-001506.  165

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Preface

I know many men in the world who are immediately prejudic’d against a work if it appears abroad without a Preface; nor will they peruse the sheets, till they have read a pompous dedication, or a prefatory preamble twice as long as the work itself. From the Preface of George’s Coffee-House, A Satire, 1763

Charles Churchill (1732–1764), author of George’s Coffee-House, understood the often scathing power that print wielded in eighteenth-century Britain. A critic of the Tories and friend of the radical politician John Wilkes, the Augustan satirist knew that his words were being diffused to a discriminating readership. The use of the printed word had rules and conventions that the public expected to be followed. This situation made the reading of English-language texts both effortless and complex. While any literate soul could access print, its culturally dictated rules, tropes, and allusions proved more complicated to master. Print can be seen as a important forum of social interaction that both formed and informed other regulated fora of eighteenth-century sociability such as coffeehouses, theatre, and clubs. This study delves into the multivalent relationship that existed between the nascent English-language press in Halifax and Quebec City and its provincial audience. In particular, it is an exploration of a prevailing set of British traditions, ideas, and literature that were imprinted upon the social, political, and intellectual life of what can be seen as the colonial print community, a group whose everyday lives increasingly intertwined print literacy and sociability. The press has long been seen by  historians as a social and political force in nineteenth-century Nova Scotia and the Canadas.1 Building upon this work, this study traces the 1 The growth of the nineteenth-century press, and particularly its role in politics, is well documented. For some examples see Martel, “The Press of the Maritimes in the

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eighteenth-century origins of the domestic press in British North America and reveals that an engaged, self-aware, and connected colonial print community of printers, readers, and contributors also existed. Domestically produced print in British North America is at the core of this study. As a primary source, eighteenth-century printed works offer a colonial record separate from that found in the well-mined legal, administrative, or military documents of the era. Colonial print instead offers a voice that is more consistent with what can be found in the remaining and scattered mercantile records, private journals, and correspondence. Unlike most other methods of expressions of the era, eighteenth-­century print was unique insofar as it was employed to both proclaim its inherent strengths and criticize its weaknesses. Eighteenth-century satirists such as Charles Churchill and George Alexander Stevens (1710–1780), for example, frequently mocked the reading public for their superficial consumption of news, stories, and politics. The colonial print community was comprised by a broad range of readers and contributors, from the self-aware and engaged to the more ignorant and disconnected. Early British North American print, like its readers, was both shallow and substantive, earnest and satirical, modern and traditional. The focus that this study brings to the lesser-known colonial capitals of Halifax and Quebec City is a conscious departure from the rich scholarly debate that addresses print and its reception and role in daily life in the thirteen British North American colonies that would later form the United States of America. While on the periphery of Colonial America, print culture in Halifax and Quebec City was not a peripheral interest. These towns were geographically, linguistically, and ethnically different. Yet, in spite of these differences, the colonial experience also offered many shared characteristics and mutual challenges. Both capitals played similar roles as centres of British colonial bureaucracy and administration. Both were garrison towns with a strong Royal Navy and British Army presence as well as vibrant commercial hubs boasting important transatlantic links. Both faced similar challenges adjusting to new colonial policies and economic realities in an era that was once seen at the cusp

1830s”; Wallace, “The First Journalists in Upper Canada”; Harvey, “The Intellectual Awakening of Nova Scotia”; Wallot, “Le Bas-Canada et les Imprimés”; Hare, Les imprimés dans le Bas-Canada, 1801–1840; Kesterton, A History of Journalism in Canada; Parker, “Joseph Howe as Publisher”; Inness, “Joseph Howe: Journalist”; Benn, “The Upper Canadian Press, 1793–1815”; Parker, The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada; McNairn, The Capacity to Judge.

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of the First and Second British Empires.2 This is also an era marked by what some have seen as the slow decline of the Enlightenment, that intellectual and social phenomenon that scholars have argued touched most Western countries in the eighteenth century.3 Transatlantic routes of commerce and exchange brought new ideas and popular beliefs forged in the crucible of the multiple discourses of Enlightenment to Halifax and Quebec City. In return, members of the colonial print community were not immune to these messages which they read and commented upon in the English vernacular press. The presses of Halifax and Quebec City offer the longest and most consistent print record that can be found in the regions that would remain in British North America. In this study, every surviving newspaper and magazine produced in Halifax and Quebec City has been consulted along with a cross-section of almanacs, poetry, handbills and posters, directories, dictionaries, published sermons, speeches, and essays. When required, various newspapers, magazines, and printed works from neighbouring towns, colonies, and across the Atlantic have also been consulted as well as a broad cross section of manuscript letters, correspondence, and other archival sources to flesh out the greater influence of the print record. While this study focuses on print production and the resultant social networks in the capitals, it is clear that the influence of the press was also felt throughout the wider colonies that would comprise British North America. Sources such as newspaper subscription rolls, lists of colonial news agents in other towns, as well as correspondence telling of the common practice of mailing newspapers shed light on some of the various ways print was diffused from the capitals. By the last two decades of the eighteenth century, however, the monopoly that the colonial capitals had on the domestic print voice slowly weakened. More and more regional papers sprouted up in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick (after 1784) and Quebec (Lower and Upper Canada after 1791) that addressed new and growing audiences concerned by changing ethnic, linguistic, and political concerns. The increase in other regional publications did not, however, diminish the relevance of the papers from the capitals. Instead, the 2 J.R. Seeley (1834–1895) was the first scholar of empire to acknowledge this split as First and Second Empires. This long-standing perspective has been challenged: see Marshall, The Making and Unmaking of Empires. 3 The idea of separate enlightenments on the fringe of the French Enlightenment grew throughout the 1970s and one of its most succinct scholarly iterations can be seen in Porter and Teich, eds, The Enlightenment in National Context. John Gascoigne’s The Enlightenment and the Origins of European Australia further expands the idea of enlightenment on the margins to that of colonial Australia. Also see Outram, The Enlightenment and Schmidt, What Is Enlightenment?

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newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City moved from the sole domestic print voice to that of the administrative centre, taking on a dual role of sometime exemplar, sometime foil to the regional productions. In the eighteenth-century British Atlantic all print was political.4 The printer’s selection or omission of articles, letters from readers using carefully crafted pseudonyms, observations of royal celebrations, and the promotion of “genteel” coffeehouses all exhibited political overtones, or could serve a political purpose, in the colonies. Historians have tended to believe that the press in eighteenth-century British North America was strictly under the control of colonial officials. The dismissal of Halifax Gazette printer Anthony Henry during the Stamp Act crisis of 1765–66 and the arrest and imprisonment in 1779 of Montreal printer Fleury Mesplet (1734–1794) and early journalist Valentin Jautard (c. 1738– 1787) are frequently cited as evidence of the regressive and authoritarian control of British colonial officials.5 Indeed, press historian W.H. Kesterton notably wrote of this era: Among British North American newspapers the authoritarian theory of the press prevailed … In British North America, during the second half of the eighteenth century, there were no doubts about the government–colony relationship, and the subservient role of the newspapers was taken for granted … Under such stifling conditions it is not strange that the characteristic journal of the free press was a pallid, neutral, harmless sheet without any really vital role to play in the social and political life of the community.6

This interpretation of an overarching and authoritarian control over the press, however, has offered an unbalanced and polarized picture of eighteenth-century print politics. The British North American press was subject to censorship and government intervention, though overt acts of censure were rare. Official censure of the press in Halifax and Quebec 4 The writings on the nature of print politics are vast; for some seminal works see Aspinall, Politics and the Press, c. 1780–1850; Rea, The English Press in Politics, 1760–1774; Black, The English Press in the Eighteenth Century; J.G.A. Pocock, ed. The Varieties of British Political Thought, 1500–1800; Barker, Newspapers, Politics and Public Opinion in Late EighteenthCentury England, and for the situation in colonial America see Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution; Bailyn and Hench, eds, The Press & the American Revolution; Ziff, Writing in the New Nation; Pasley, The Tyranny of Printers. 5 Thomas, The History of Printing in America, 596; Stewart, “Early Journalism in Nova Scotia”; Kerr, “The Stamp Act in Nova Scotia”; Gallichan, “Political Censorship,” in History of the Book in Canada, eds Fleming et al., 321–3; Andrès and Bernier, eds, Portrait des arts, des lettres et de l’éloquence au Québec, 107–8; Lamonde, Histoire sociale des idées au QuébecI, 70–1. 6 Kesterton, A History of Journalism in Canada, 8–9.

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City did happen – as it did in eighteenth-century Britain – yet it was c­ yclical in nature. During eras of heightened political tensions, such as the crisis surrounding the Stamp Act, the American Revolution (1775–1783), or France’s declaration of War on Great Britain in 1793, the patience of colonial authorities was clearly tried and printers were subject to official reprimand. However, between these times of turmoil were grand expressions of print creativity and tolerance for differing opinion. Furthermore, colonial officials, who were also members of the print community, understood the hegemonic benefits that could be gained through the selfregulating, English-language press. These administrators, readers, and printers alike claimed a stake in the press and at different times exhibited acts of tolerance and moderation, advocated propriety and censure, or defended the importance of its liberty. Thus, the reception and regulation of print in British North America was more complex and nuanced than has traditionally been acknowledged. As we shall see, in late eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City a colourful, animated, and even Enlightenment-inspired discourse existed. Yet the parameters of the debate, set by the colonial print community, was not the radical discourse found in many New England papers or London prints. Instead, the tone took on more of a flavour found in provincial Britain, exhibiting knowledge of the latest fashions yet nonetheless favouring consensus and stability. For the most part, the British North American news­paper was one that rejected republicanism while favouring civic engagement, promoted reason over superstition, advocated liberty with propriety, extolled democracy under monarchy, and encouraged social criticism without revolution. The latter half of the eighteenth century was an era of great change, of transatlantic revolutions, civil war, forced and voluntary immigration, economic and political tensions. Print was essential in documenting and facilitating change. The newspaper was predicated on conveying what was new and, in the parlance of the era, the “freshest occurrences” of the British Atlantic world. Print articulated what were perceived as acceptable attitudes and behaviours while, at the same time, forging future visions for British North America. The French historian Marc Bloch observed that “history is, in its essentials, the science of change.” Yet, this study is not preoccupied with documenting that change, but rather with an overarching desire that existed for consistency in the face of change. The common desire to find stability in an English-language press would begin to fracture by the end of the century as did the shared beliefs held by the colonial print community that supported these publications. Yet, from the middle to the end of the eighteenth century, domestically produced print offered British North Americans a means of social stability

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and a vehicle of consensus in a turbulent world. Newspapers, in particular, offered more than a disposable medium reporting current events and gossip. Behind the ever-changing headlines, print featured a consistent lexicon of values, a constant source of literary touchstones, and a familiar means of interaction with unsaid, yet mutually understood, rules and expectations. For the insight that the study of colonial print offers it also has limitations and conspicuous silences. The print and manuscript material from colonial Halifax and Quebec City pales in comparison to that produced in eighteenth-century London, Boston, Philadelphia, or New York. Valuable personal manuscripts, essential to corroborating the printed word or further contextualizing its observations, have not been preserved in similar numbers to those in the larger centres. Neither did the newspapers of Halifax, nor Quebec City, enjoy the same number of extended and engaged print debaters or the vibrant tradition of pamphleteers witnessed in eighteenth-century New England. As a result, the greater contextualization of print ideas – found in British and American studies of the eighteenth-century press – is at times lacking. What is printed in the newspapers often represents the only known evidence of a past meeting, theatrical event, or once newsworthy occurrence. The papers of British North America also glossed over the voices of the illiterate, or alternate literacies, in colonial society. Newspapers and magazines of the era offer little in regard to women, children, First Nations, or free and enslaved Blacks. In spite of sizeable populations of German- and French-language speakers, the majority of print contributions found in the newspapers of the capitals were authored in English by those who fashioned themselves to be British or Anglo-American men. Even in the rare cases where messages were specifically from, or for, those with alternate literacies they have been mediated by the colonial print community. The story that print does provide – that of a literate, self-regulating, ­consensus-seeking community attempting to provide order to their colonial environment – is unavoidably incomplete. The first part of this study deals with print as a form of sociability for those individuals who were part of the colonial print community. Chapter one specifically explores the lives and actions of Halifax and Quebec City’s early printers. These tradesmen were both print facilitators and participants. Printers promoted the utility of their productions in an attempt to balance public propriety and what they believed was an inherent liberty of the press. Their productions were designed to entertain and inform colonial readers and to appeal to existing tastes. The second chapter addresses the other component of the print community: its readers and contributors. Through the use of diaries, subscription lists,

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and domestically produced print itself, the backgrounds and tastes of many of these individuals can be brought to the fore. Print information was viewed by those in both the upper echelons and the middling ranks as important in daily life. In this environment, both renowned civic figures and forgettable minor characters forged ties around the printed word, steadfast in the belief of its power to convey knowledge and elevate lives. The next chapters explore how the colonial print community used the press as a means of sociability, communication, and control on their edge of the British Empire. In particular, a complex relationship between print and sociability, found elsewhere in the English-speaking world, can also be seen to take root in Halifax and Quebec City. Indeed, members of the colonial print community saw the medium of print as being as sociable as meeting in a public gathering. As such, virtual print communication was subject to similar rules of conduct and decorum as physical manifestations. Print expression, it was argued, should be regulated as it could have very real consequences on readers’ real-world behaviours. Chapter three, in particular, explores the colonial newspaper as a forum of sociability and social engineering. Readers in Halifax and Quebec City forged a special, collaborative relationship with the press. Literate colonists did not see themselves as passive consumers of print information, but rather as active print contributors and arbitrators. Print was more than a means of amusement or information and members of the colonial print community used it to influence and regulate behaviour. The fourth chapter focuses on the communication of popular science and the idea of useful knowledge as animating Enlightenment discussions amongst members of the colonial print community. This public expression of science served many purposes from the practical to the patriotic. In the second part of this study, the focus shifts from print as a form of sociability to the greater relationship between the printed word and other forms of colonial sociability. The influence of print can be seen on a vast array of social activities both sacred and secular. For the purposes of this study, three primarily secular fora of sociability are explored. Chapter five addresses the nature of societies and clubs in the two capitals and how the press was employed to fashion these colonial gatherings. Through print, members of societies could both obtain new transatlantic perspectives on association life or have their ideas on propriety and conduct re­ inforced. Club members along with other participants of the colonial print community then turned to the press to debate the value of proper sociability and legitimize their own elite association. Chapter six explores the elevated sociability of the theatre. The messages communicated in

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popular plays reinforced British supremacy. After the establishment of presses, print extended this experience beyond the confines of the playhouse. It was in the press that members of the colonial print community debated the merits of theatre, where printers, performers, and patrons alike fashioned theatre as an amusing and respectable form of entertainment. The final chapter examines coffeehouses as the physical embodiment of British tradition and gentility in the colonial capitals. As in the clubs and theatres of the two capitals, print was essential not only to the literary activities of coffeehouses, but also to patrons and proprietors alike to promote what was seen as the appropriately genteel and British nature of the coffeehouse. After the first printing presses were founded in Nova Scotia and Quebec an informal group of printers, readers, and print contributors coalesced and formed a colonial print community. It was a community that was demonstrably self-aware; a publick who perceived that their peers shared the same corpus of cultural touchstones and believed that this collective also possessed the capacity to judge critically what was in print. Colonially produced print was integral to the development of society in Halifax and Quebec City during the second half of the eighteenth century. Not content merely to consume print information, readers used the medium to criticize what they believed to be deviant behaviour, to suggest exemplars of proper action, or to otherwise communicate cultural values and opinion. For members of this print community, print became a powerful form of social interaction that could bring constancy and cultural normalcy to the instabilities of colonial life. The instabilities of writing history can be best addressed with good friends, supportive colleagues, and loving family. I am fortunate to live in Peterborough, Ontario where I am surrounded by a rich community of scholars. For fear of inadvertently leaving someone out, I will simply say that I am eternally grateful for the countless conversations with and advice from my friends and colleagues of the History Department, the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, as well as Lady Eaton College at Trent University. I could not have made it to this point without my doctoral supervisors and friends Jane Errington and Jeffrey McNairn to whom I am indebted for their advice and long, often unremunerated, hours of attention. My doctoral research, on which this book is based, would not have been possible without critical financial support from a Canada Graduate Scholarship (sshrc), an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (mtcu), and funding from Queen’s University, Kingston. Working with Jeff Brison and, later, Kyla Madden at McGill-Queen’s University Press has been an absolute joy and a privilege. Everyone needs a good editor and I am grateful for the meticulous and supportive work

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of Jessica Howarth and Kathryn Simpson. The support of Ryan Van Huijstee and the entire production and design team, as well as that of the entire editorial board, is greatly appreciated. Similarly, I could not have asked for a better set of anonymous reviewers who, while not sparing any criticism, underscored the importance of publishing this work. Their advice has strengthened this book greatly and I take responsibility for any remaining deficits. As a former archivist, I hold a deep appreciation for those individuals who acquire documents, organize them, and make them accessible to the public. Some of these dedicated professionals who assisted me include Jeanne Howell, Cambridge Military Library, Halifax; Philip Hartling, Garry Shutlak, and the staff of the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management; Ken Hiltz, Halifax, Nova Scotia; Dr Pierre Louis Lapointe, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales de Québec; Kimberly Reynolds, Curator of Manuscripts, Boston Public Library; Ian Sumner, ffi, Librarian, The Flag Institute, uk; Guy Ziebert, University of Toronto; Duncan Couper, Archivist at Boodle’s, London; Peter Crummey and the staff of the Massachusetts Historical Society; Patricia Kennedy, Sarah Klotz, Andrew Horrall, and the staff at Library and Archives Canada. This work could not have been written without the pioneering efforts in the microfilming and digitization of archival documents undertaken by Library and Archives Canada, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, Bob Huggins (formerly of Cold North Wind Inc.), and the Champlain Society. I would like to acknowledge both the Massachusetts Historical Society for their permission to cite their records and Robert H. Northup P.G.M., Grand Secretary, for permission to view and use the records of the Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. I would especially like to thank Professor Tom Symons, Founding President and Vanier Professor Emeritus at Trent University. I am honoured that someone who has done, and continues to do, so much for the study of Canada has taken a profound interest in this book. He has provided endless encouragement and helpful advice and continues to be an ardent booster. The deep sense of gratitude that I feel for him also extends to the trustees of the Symons Trust for Canadian Studies for their generous financial support of this publication. In addition, I would like to thank the Office of the Vice President of Research and its Strategic Initiatives Fund at Trent University that has also made the publishing of this work possible. During the writing of this book I was blessed with the birth of my sons Sam and Will to whom this work is dedicated. There is no better way of focusing the mind than knowing that you only have a few moments

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Preface

before the next diaper change, or that a school pick up is just minutes away. The joy that they have given me and the understanding of what is truly important cannot be measured. Finally, my greatest thanks goes to my loving wife and fellow historian Jennine Hurl-Eamon. In spite of her own busy schedule of teaching, research, and writing I could not ask for a more supportive partner or better friend.

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IMPRINTING BRITAIN

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Introduction

The English-Language Press and the Formation of a Colonial Print Community in British North America In the beginning was the spoken word. The indigenous peoples who lived in the regions that would become British North America participated in large networks of trade, commerce, and communication without a written language in the European sense.1 With the arrival of Europeans came a new literacy and the printed word. Initially, all printed materials were imported – either brought by settlers, left by visitors, or sold by a handful of booksellers.2 In these towns both oral and print expression flourished. From the crowded wharves of Halifax to the busy Lower Town of Quebec City, a multilingual mingling of shouts, orders, gossip, and opinion could be heard. Pulpits, theatres, coffeehouses, shops, and market squares all resounded with conversations both sacred and secular. Not far from this colonial din the printed word could be found. The paper empire of the eighteenth-century English Atlantic3 was predicated not only on reams of hand-written letters and dispatches but also on books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, invoices, licenses, and other forms of print communication. Print complemented 1 Some indigenous peoples used petroglyphs and other symbolic forms; however, this is not considered a syntactic written language. For more on the nature and extent of preEuropean Contact societies see Jaenen, Friend and Foe; Martin, Keepers of the Game; Trigger, Natives and Newcomers; White, The Middle Ground; Nash, Red, White and Black; Salisbury, “The Indians’ Old World”; Axtell, Natives and Newcomers. 2 Early literacy and literature is documented in works such as Sulte, “The Historical and Miscellaneous Literature of Quebec, 1764 to 1834”; Klinck, ed., Literary History of Canada; Donovan, “‘After Midnight We Danced Until Daylight’”; Fleming et al., eds, History of the Book in Canada. 3 “Ultimately the English Atlantic was a literate empire, a paper empire. Laws and instructions to governors, sea captains, agents, and attorneys, as well as letters and newspaper or even mundane bills of lading – all indicated that the English Atlantic was a society that rewarded literacy, indeed required literacy for full membership.” Steele, The English Atlantic 1675–1740, 265.

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oral interaction and informed physical interaction. With an estimated 40 to 70 per cent of the population in Quebec City unable to read or write4 (and a similar situation existing in Halifax5), the complementary relationship between print and the spoken word was an essential one. British Halifax and Quebec City came into existence in the mid-­ eighteenth century. Halifax’s founding as a British capital and Quebec City’s rebirth as one took place during the age of Enlightenment and empire. Halifax, the younger of the two capitals, was founded in 1749. In that year the London-based Board of Trade and Plantations oversaw the establishment of the town and the immigration of approximately 3,000  settlers, soldiers, and sailors arriving in thirteen military transports under the command of Edward Cornwallis (1713–1776).6 The town was deemed to be strategically situated at the south-eastern coastal centre of the colony, particularly in the wake of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which saw nearby Cape Breton returned to French interests. An estimated 4,400 miles from London,7 the settlement was particularly prized by eighteenth-century ­observers for its large natural harbour.8 This “commodious”9 space, which by contemporary estimation was large enough to accommodate a “­thousand sail of ships,”10 remained open throughout the year and soon 4 Michel Verrette reviewing marriage certificates in Quebec discerns that the Protestant population between 1750 and 1849 had an average literacy rate of 64.7 per cent and the Roman Catholic community a rate of 34.3 per cent. When broken down between actual French-language and English-language speakers, he observes that 37.7 per cent of Francophones could write their signatures compared to 62.0 per cent of Anglophones for the period between 1770 to 1800. Michel Verrette, “L’alphabétisation de la population de la ville de Québec de 1750 à 1849,” 64 and Table 5, 72. 5 In his exhaustive account of wills in colonial New England Kenneth Lockridge found that male literacy increased from barely 60 per cent in the mid-seventeenth century to almost 90 per cent by 1795. Lockridge, Literacy in Colonial New England: An Inquiry into the Social Context of Literacy in the Early Modern West, 39. Considering the close familial and commercial ties between New England and Halifax, similar levels of literacy could be argued. Such a number would only be an estimate since a similar study into the literacy of Haligonians has yet to be undertaken. 6 Fergusson, “Eighteenth-century Halifax,” 32–3; Raddall, Halifax, Warden of the North, 20–30. 7 “Hallifax” was measured to be 4,460 miles from London with a latitude of 44º 20’. See America display’d, and the Truth Discovered: Being A Repository of American Inteligences; in Three Parts (T. Burroug, 1775), 2. 8 “Arrival of the Settlers at Nova Scotia,” from the Gentleman’s Magazine 19 (1749): 408; British army major Robert Rogers in his gazetteer called it “the finest in America, and capable of being equal to any in Europe.” Rogers, A concise account of North America: containing a description of the several British colonies, 18. 9 Gaine’s universal register, or, American and British kalendar, for the year 1775, 124. 10 “Halifax,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, volume viii (Edinburgh: A. Bell and C. Macfarquhar, 1797), 277.

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Introduction 5

0.1  Bringing order to the wilderness. This hand-painted version of a plan for the new and carefully designed capital of Halifax was shared with readers of the Gentleman’s Magazine at the height of the Enlightenment in England. “A Plan for the Harbour of Chebucto and Town of Halifax,” by Moses Harris, c. 1750.

became a centre of lucrative maritime trade and British colonial communication networks along the eastern seaboard of North America and the West Indies. The Board of Trade, ever mindful of the public money expended on Nova Scotia, believed that increased settlement was the requite means to  free the colony of its economic dependency.11 Halifax would soon

11 Harper, “The Maritime Provinces – Their Origin and Inhabitants,” Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec New Series, no. 16 (1882), available online at: http:// www.morrin.org / transactions / docsfromclient / books / 261 / 261.html (accessed 1  May 2013).

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­ ecome the gateway to successive waves of immigrants to Nova Scotia, b including thousands of “Foreign Protestants” (from various Germanic regions of Europe),12 Irish, Yorkshiremen,13 urban merchants, and rural planters from New England.14 While the vast majority of immigrants travelled through Halifax to the more fertile interior lands,15 some would remain in the city. Suburbs with German, Irish, and African American16 settlers soon formed around the initial Halifax settlement.17 In the first decade after the initial influx of settlers, the town experienced a drastic decline in population. However, by the end of the eighteenth century Halifax had rebounded and grown to a population of 8,500,18 a relatively small, but lively colonial capital and British American garrison town. Quebec City was founded by the French a century and a half earlier than the British outpost of Halifax. The city boasted a commanding presence on and below an impressive rock cliff overlooking the Saint Lawrence River. The capital of Canada had been the administrative centre for the French colonial administration and army as well as hosting various Roman Catholic religious orders,19 tradesmen, and merchants.20 French military engineers attempted to impose symmetry and order to the grow12 Over 3,000 “foreign Protestants” arrived in Nova Scotia from 1749 to the end of the Revolutionary War. For more on their influence see Bell, The “Foreign Protestants” and the Settlement of Nova Scotia. 13 Rawlyk, Nova Scotia’s Massachusetts, 222. An account of letters back home to Yorkshire can be found in Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax (nsarm), MG 100, Volume 263, #13, Letters of Nathaniel Smith and Family. 14 Conrad, ed., They Planted Well; Conrad, ed. Making Adjustments; Conrad, ed., Intimate Relations; Conrad and Moody, eds, Planter Links; Hornsby and Reid, eds, New England and the Maritimes. 15 This phenomenon occurred throughout the eighteenth century, which led to population fluctuations in Halifax. It was first noticed by the Rev. Dr Breynton who wrote to his superiors in England that, “the number of inhabitants in Halifax was somewhat diminished by their branching into out settlements, where the soil is better, and the situation more convenient for fishing.” Quoted in Hill, “History of Saint Paul’s Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia,” 38–9. 16 Grant, “Black Immigrants into Nova Scotia, 1776–1815”; Walker, The Black Loyalists; Winks, The Blacks in Canada, 24–60. 17 For a description of the growing suburbs of Halifax in 1760, see “An Account of Halifax. In a Letter from Mr. Alexander Grant to Rev. Mr. Stiles, Dated at Halifax, May, 1760,” in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, volume 10 (Boston: Monroe, Francis and Parker, 1809), 71–82. 18 Fergusson, “Eighteenth-century Halifax,” 34. 19 For more on the Roman Catholic Church and various orders in Quebec City see Baillargeon, Le Séminaire de Québec de 1685 à 1760; Casgrain, Histoire de l’Hôtel–Dieu de Québec; Jaenen, The Role of the Church in New France; Lantôt, Situation politique de l’Église canadienne. 20 Nish, “The Nature, Composition, and Functions of the Canadian Bourgeoisie, 1729–1748.”

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Introduction 7

ing city,21 but the pre-Cambrian ledges and outcroppings often confounded these attempts, giving the city the feeling of both a planned capital and meandering European market town (see figure 0.2).22 The upper town was home to the city’s main fortifications, the governor’s palace, military barracks and the residences, hospitals, schools, and chapels of the Augustines Hospitalières de Hôtel Dieu, Récollects, Ursulines, Sulpiciens and Jésuites communities.23 Through a gate in the southern wall, the steep Côte de la Montagne led traffic to the cramped lower town, home to the merchant quarter, the lower fortifications, and the harbour.24 The frenetic business of the harbour25 was abruptly curtailed each year with the advent of winter and the freezing over of the river. After a prolonged naval bombardment of the city in 1759, a dramatic land battle was fought on the Plains of Abraham resulting in the death of both French and British military commanders and the eventual ceding of the city to the British forces.26 With the death of General James Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham, Britons were given both a new imperial hero and a new colonial capital confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1763.27 A

21 Léry, King’s Engineer, devised an ambitious plan in 1752 to drastically redesign Quebec with symmetrical blocks and gardens, parallel streets, and grand avenues. Léry did not see his plan come to fruition, nor did he live to see the British attack on his fortifications, as he died in 1756. Hare, Lafrance, and Ruddel, Histoire de la Ville de Québec, 60–2; Thorpe, “Chaussegros de Léry, Gaspard-Joseph,” Dictionnaire biographique du Canada enligne, volume iii, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 22 For a detailed investigation into the challenges of the military and urban planning of the city see Charbonneau, Desloges, and Lafrance, Québec The Fortified City: From the 17th to the 19th Century. 23 Approximately twenty of the Upper Town’s seventy-two hectares were owned by the Roman Catholic Church and its various religious orders; almost another four hectares was occupied by military and government administrators. The remaining area was comprised of roads and private residences. See Desloges, A Tenant’s Town, 73, 77–85. For a detailed contemporary description of the features of Quebec City see Charlevoix, Letters to the Dutchess of Lesdiguières. 24 Desloges, Tenant’s Town, 89–93; Hare et al., Histoire de la Ville de Québec, 80–3. 25 By 1758, fifty-six different ships frequented the harbour carrying over 13,000 tons of goods. In the period between 1739 and 1749, 98 ships were built at Quebec. See Hare et al., Histoire de la Ville de Québec, 318, 322. 26 For more on the military operations, see Doughty, The Siege of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham; Stacey, Quebec 1759. Some primary accounts include: An Accurate and Authentic Journal of the Siege of Quebec, 1759, (London: J. Robertson, 1759); Gardiner, Memories of the Siege of Quebec … from the journal of a French officer; Manuscript Relating to the Early History of Canada: Journal of the Siege of Quebec, 1760 By General Murray; Narrative of the Doings during the Siege of Quebec, and the Conquest of Canada; by a Nun of the General Hospital of Quebec; Panet, Journal du Siège du Québec en 1759. 27 Initial reports of the battle are found in contemporary publications such as The Annual Register, The London Magazine, or Gentleman’s Magazine. Commemoration of Wolfe

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0.2  A New British capital on the frontier. The former French capital had been the subject of town planning by military engineers, but also had grown organically around the harsh, natural geographic features by the time British forces had arrived. It would later become the administrative centre for all of British North America. “A plan of Quebec. Quebec the capital of New France or Canada ... Publish’d according to Act of Parliament Octobr. 1759 by E. Oakley & sold by J. Rocque near Round Court in the Strand.”



Introduction 9

British Army garrison and Royal Navy detachment was soon followed by a small but vocal group of merchants and their families from New England and Great Britain. After the arrival of the British, the city continued in its role as a hub of colonial trade and communications. It was a gateway to Montreal and the lucrative fur trade beyond as well as to the rich agricultural lands that functioned for generations under a feudal system of overseeing seigneurs and their farmer censitaires.28 Slowly, however, the uniquely French face of the city began to change.29 Quebec City in the last decade of the eighteenth century was a thriving urban community with 12,000 to 14,000 souls, one third of whom were English-speaking.30 By the mid-eighteenth century, the flow of imported print to British North America began to be augmented by the first colonial presses: in Halifax in 1751 and in Quebec City in 1764. The introduction of presses in the colonial capitals marked the beginning of a remarkable transformation in the colonial relationship between print and oral communications. This change would not be witnessed in a diminished use of the spoken word, but in an increased importance placed upon the printed one. A functional literacy soon proved inadequate for social and economic advancement. Instead, a new cultural literacy31 of print emerged, as did a dynamic colonial print community. Theirs was a literacy that transcended the ability to sign a document, or read selected passages from a

continued throughout the century by painters such as Edward Penny (1764), Samuel Wale (c. 1770), or Benjamin West (1771). Wolfe’s exploits were also detailed in biographies such as written by John Pringle, or in poetry such as penned by Thomas Young. 28 Kennedy, The Constitution of Canada, 19–24; Frégault, La société canadienne sous le Règime Français; Trudel, Les débuts du régime seigneurial au Canada; Harris, The Seigneurial System in Early Canada. 29 Linda Kerr argues that the English merchants had a difficult time in becoming established in the former French colony. (Kerr, Quebec.) Alain Parent argues that contemporary images of British soldiers and merchants juxtaposed with the architecture and landscape of Quebec City fostered an imperial imagination. Parent, Entre Empire et Nation. 30 Weld, Travels Through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, 200; Statistics Canada, Cda Table I – Population, Sexes, Conjugal Condition, 1790 – Canada (table), 1790 – Census of Canada (database), e-stat (accessed 1 May 2013). http://estat.statcan.gc.ca / cgi–win / cnsmcgi.exe?Lang=E&EST–Fi=EStat\English\SC_RR– eng.htm. 31 The sociologist Raymond Williams rightly pointed out that the term “culture” is anachronistic when used in regard to the eighteenth century, where its use was primarily to describe agriculture, or the culture, or the raising of natural things. The terms culture or cultural – unless otherwise specified – reflect here our modern sense of the word as a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices often commonly held and expressed. Williams, Keywords, 87.

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bible.32 Theirs was a literacy of British tradition, popular touchstones, literature, history, natural philosophy, political writing, and social graces. Theirs was a literacy shared by those in the colonies with the time to read, the predisposition to ponder, and the inclination to write. The colonial print community in both Halifax and Quebec City was an eclectic group of literate colonists from a variety of educational and professional backgrounds including close friends, casual acquaintances, and even complete strangers. While many members of this group have been seen as part of the traditional colonial political and religious hierarchy,33 the margins of the colonial print community also expanded beyond these traditional elites, encompassing various merchants, clerks, tradesmen, prominent farmers, and the printers who facilitated the process. It was primarily a literate English-language community; however, the ideas and influence of this group could transcend the bounds of those who could read to the illiterate or those with little or no English language skills. Messages found in print could be diffused in sociable spaces: market places, church congregations, society meetings, coffeehouses, dances, theatrical events, or anywhere where colonists gathered. It is at such nodal points that the opinion and concerns of the larger society could enter into the consciousness of the colonial print community. Today, the study of print and sociability cannot be addressed without acknowledging German sociologist Jürgen Habermas and his polarizing writings on the bourgeois public sphere.34 Habermas’s approach has been applied to the interpretation of both eighteenth-century Europe35 and America,36 and it unavoidably frames the current debate on the na32 The determination of eighteenth-century literacy requires a painstaking analysis of legal records, contracts, licenses, and marriage certificates looking for evidence of signatures. As historian Lawrence Stone has observed, this autographic approach is not perfect, however: “for periods before the nineteenth century are indeed all we know or are ever likely to know.” Stone, “Literacy and Education in England 1640–1900,” 98. 33 This hierarchy has been viewed as the ruling governor and council, senior bureaucrats, church officials, and past ruling officials who remained in the colonies. See Doughty and Dionne, Quebec Under Two Flags; Kennedy, The Constitution of Canada; Burt, The Old Province of Quebec; Lower, Colony to Nation; Creighton, The Empire of the St. Lawrence; Ouellet, L’histoire économique et sociale du Québec; Neatby, Quebec; MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces. 34 Historian Harold Mah has gone as far as to say that the diffusion of Habermas is one of “the most significant historiographic developments” since its English translation in 1989, see Mah, “Phantasies of the Public Sphere: Rethinking the Habermas of Historians,” 153. 35 Meehan, ed., Feminists Read Habermas; Rendall, “Women and the Public Sphere”; Mah, “Phantasies of the Public Sphere;” Crossley and Roberts, eds, After Habermas; Laurier and Philo, “‘A Parcel of Muddling Muckworms.’” 36 Schudson, “Was There Ever a Public Sphere? If So, When? Reflections on the American Case,” in Habermas and the Public Sphere, ed. Calhoun, 160; Waldstreicher, “Two Cheers for the ‘Public Sphere,’” 107.

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Introduction 11

ture of the eighteenth-century public. In particular, Habermas argued that in Europe certain manifestations of sociability could be considered hallmarks of the emerging public sphere of the bourgeois, a rational and egalitarian space separate from the institutions of the Church or State, in which the eighteenth-century transition to modernity, rise of a middle class and advent of deliberative democracy can be seen.37 Habermas identified newspapers and their readers, coffeehouses, salons, and clubs as essential elements of this transformative, bourgeois public sphere. All of these fora of also existed in British North America. However, this is where the similarity with the Habermasian model ends. In Halifax and Quebec City, the colonial print community formed the reading public and fashioned hybrid spaces of sociability and social control, partly inspired by contemporary fashion, partly influenced by past memory, and partly informed by colonial realities that were quite different than the realities experienced by those in Europe. In short, the public sphere of eighteenth-century British North America was not the same as the bourgeois public sphere that Habermas argued existed elsewhere. Nonetheless, print and sociability were a powerful combination. For Samuel Neilson – the late eighteenth-century owner of the Quebec Gazette – the printed word was essential to life in British America. He believed that the press was more than a means of livelihood for himself; it also possessed an inherent power to change the greater society. His conviction was also shared by his readers. “Printing,” he wrote in his Quebec Almanac for 1792, is seen as the cause of “the improvement of Reason and advancement of the Arts and Science.” As “the arts constitute the principal difference between barbarous and civilized nations,” Neilson concluded that “we may just count the art of printing as the guardian angel of that difference … it is the ars artium conservatix.”38 Indeed, Neilson was not alone in perceiving a particular power to the press. Others – those who formed the larger colonial print community – saw the medium as an invaluable vehicle that could inform, educate, entertain, and direct behaviour while at the same time promoting the public use of reason. This community was not afraid to use the printed word to promote the public interest or to facilitate their own private advancement – two objectives that were not necessarily considered mutually exclusive. This steadfast belief in a progressive and inherently beneficial nature of the press can be traced to the press’s earliest days in British North America. The prospectus extolling the benefits of the Quebec Gazette in 1763 clearly underscores this early attitude which continued throughout the century: 37 Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. 38 The Quebec Almanac for the Year 1792 (Quebec: Samuel Neilson, 1791), 58.

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By Means of the Press we can sit at Home and acquaint ourselves with what is done in all the distant Parts of the World, and find what our Fathers did long ago, in the first Ages of Mankind: By this Means a Briton holds Correspondence with his Friend in America or Japan, and manages all his Business: ‘Tis this, which brings all the past Ages of Men at once upon the Stage, and makes the most distant Nations and Ages converse together, and grow into Acquaintance.’ Wherefore, a well regulated Printing Office has always been considered as a publick Benefit, insomuch that no Place of Note in the English Dominions is at this Day destitute of the Advantages arising therefrom.39

The discourse found in the colonial press was one that advocated inquiry and experience and encouraged self and societal benefit. In both Halifax and Quebec City, more moderate strains of Enlightenment thought could be found that offered readers useful knowledge and a balanced approach in an era outwardly marked by tumultuous change. Indeed, the first half of the eighteenth century for British Americans was one of almost continuous warfare with the French.40 After the British victory over France in North America, there was barely a decade of peace before the continent became embroiled in the vicious and divisive civil war known as the American Revolution.41 The treaty that would end the War of Independence would change the political map of North America42 and usher in what the Canadian historian A.R.M. Lower once observed as the beginning of the continent’s “two English-speaking American experiments.”43 Loyalist refugees from the former British American colonies flooded to Halifax and Quebec City, causing various economic and

39 University of Toronto, Fisher Library, Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides Collection, brc f 0072, “Quebeck: to the public = au public,” Broadside printed in the printing office of William Dunlap, 1763. 40 This era of continued tension and conflict has captured the attention of historians for over a century. For examples see Parkman, A Half Century of Conflict; Tracy, The Tercentenary History of Canada; MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces, 29–51; Bumsted, “Sermon Literature and the 1745 Louisburg Campaign”; Steele, Warpaths, 151–247. 41 Works that detail the tensions of the age include Brebner, The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia; Lanctôt, Canada and the American Revolution, 1774–1783; Stewart and Rawlyk, A People Highly Favoured of God; Lawson, The Imperial Challenge; Milobar, “Quebec Reform, the British Constitution and the Atlantic Empire: 1774–1775”; Cahill, “The Treason of the Merchants”; Mancke, The Fault Lines of Empire. 42 For more on the 1783 Treaty of Paris and its ramifications see Jensen, The New Nation; Brown, The Good Americans; Aptheker, Early Years of the Republic; Boulton, Taming Democracy. 43 Lower, review, “Neutral Yankees of North America,” 798.

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Introduction 13

social stresses in the two capitals.44 During this time of unrest, what was perceived as the inherent nature of the English-language press – an ability to communicate British liberties and freedoms – was purposely sought by members of the colonial print community who wanted to bring normalcy and stability to the colonies. In spite of, or because of, the great demographic changes that accompanied the arrival of loyalists in both Halifax and Quebec City, there was a great appeal in the continuity that the press offered, and a commonly held perception of its invaluable role to colonial society. In late eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City members of the colonial print community used the presses as a tool to facilitate their advancement in colonial society. Members of this community saw an inherent and progressive power in print and turned to the press in their pursuit of refined sociability, self-betterment, and societal improvement. Locally produced newspapers and magazines in Halifax and Quebec City, with their selection of news, essays, and letters, quickly became a form of sociability outside of the bounds of formal state institutions, religious congregations, or family life. Some of the most active members of this print community used the press to fashion what they deemed the boundaries of society and the characteristics and standards for a suitable colonial elite. Historians argue that sociability in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic World exhibited particular rules and elevated expectations for group behaviour. Sociability tended to be elitist in nature, valued by those who belonged – or fashioned themselves as belonging – to the refined echelons of colonial society. Historian Kenneth Lockridge – drawing Norbert Elias’s concept of the civilizing process and Stephen Greenblatt’s work addressing self-fashioning – argues that the appearance of gentility became an obsession amongst eighteenth-century Americans. Colonial men aspiring to a greater social and economic status made a concerted effort to appear to have all the trappings of eighteenth-century civility.45 Literary scholar David Shields has, in particular, extended Elias’s work to

44 Upton, The United Empire Loyalists; Bumsted, “Loyalists and Nationalists”; PotterMacKinnon, The Liberty We Seek; Brown and Senior, Victorious in Defeat; Calhoon, The Loyalist Perception and Other Essays; and Mason, “The American Loyalist Diaspora and the Reconfiguration of the British Atlantic World,” in Empire and Nation: The American Revolution in the Atlantic World, eds Gould and Onuf, 239–59; MacKinnon, This Unfriendly Soil; Grant, “Black Immigrants Into Nova Scotia, 1776–1815”; Walker, The Black Loyalists. 45 It was a process, as Lockridge observes, that paradoxically cloaked great insecurities and personal habits that would have been less than genteel. Lockridge, “Colonial Selffashioning: Paradoxes and Pathologies in the Construction of Genteel Identity in Eighteenth-century America,” in Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on Personal Identity in Early America, eds Hoffman, Sobel, and Teute, 274–342.

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cultural institutions of British America, such as belles lettres, the salon, tea tables, societies, and the coffeehouse.46 Scholars looking at sociability in Great Britain and the colonial United States argue that it can best be explained as an extension of the third earl of Shaftesbury’s “private society.”47 Shields, in particular, writes that this form of interaction with its “distinctive styles of conduct and conversation” spread to colonial America from Europe through the “proliferation of coffeehouses, clubs, salons and tea tables,” reinforcing civil order while bringing a sense of communal identity and happiness to colonists.48 Colonial sociability took on similar forms in Halifax and Quebec City. Dances, concerts, theatre, coffeehouse gatherings, clubs, salons, and societies were all popular pastimes, especially as means to temper the inherent isolation of the winter season. In both capitals, members of the colonial print community initiated a dialogue that promoted certain beliefs, behaviours, and forms of sociability believed to be essential in English-speaking society. Through this print dialogue members both signified their approval, or registered their criticisms of colonial activities and behaviours.  Regardless of the positions taken, all involved in the process appealed to print – and the British traditions print communicated – to create a cohesive vision of privileged, English-speaking conduct. It was a dialogue that clearly circumscribed how refined colonists should act, what they should read, and how they should entertain themselves. Indeed, in both colonial capitals, those who envisaged and aspired to this elite conflated British gentility, literature, and elevated sociability with civility and modernity. Print was not only used by some as a means of privileged sociability, it was also used to debate or promote the objectives of other select fora such as the theatre, coffeehouses, clubs, and societies. Through the domestic press social networks were forged that lay claim to erudition and genteel sociability believed requisite to colonial advancement. The importance of print as a means to diffuse ideas and to fundamentally alter behaviour in Western societies has been argued since the invention of moveable type over five centuries ago. As print became the preferred method of communication, societies concurrently responded

46 Shields, Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America, xix. 47 The impact of Shaftesbury’s “private society” and polite behaviour in Britain and Colonial America has become the focus of an increasing number of scholarly works including Bushman, The Refinement of America; Klein, Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness; Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 37–40; Shields, Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America; Grasso, A Speaking Aristocracy; Hall, “Learned Culture in the Eighteenth Century,” in A History of the Book in America, eds Amory and Hall, 411–33; Raven, London Booksellers and American Customers; Watts, Politeness, 34, 40–4; Carey, Locke, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson; Knott, Sensibility and the American Revolution, 43–4. 48 Shields, xiii–xiv.

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Introduction 15

to and shaped the medium. “After Gutenberg,” French print historian Roger Chartier writes, “all culture in western societies can be held to be a culture of the printed word.” The power of print, as Chartier observes, rests in the fact that it “penetrated the entire web of social relations, bore thoughts and brought pleasures and lodged in people’s deepest self as well as claiming its place in the public scene.”49 For those who study the eighteenth century, the printed word similarly holds a preeminent place in the interpretation of an era marked by a dramatic increase in literacy, publications, reader contributions, and self-publishing. The reach of print was simultaneously municipal, regional, national, and transatlantic in nature. Librarians, conservators, sociologists, and historians have all contributed to what has been seen as a “forbidding range of scholarship”50 including analyses of paper, print runs, costs and distribution, biographies of printers and their customers, as well as wider studies of the diffusion of print ideas in eighteenth-century society.51 Cultural historian Benedict Anderson writes that print was foundational in the creation of national consciousness during the late eighteenth century. “First and foremost,” he argues, readers “created unified fields of exchange and communications below Latin and above the spoken vernaculars … these fellow-readers, to whom they were connected through print, formed, in their secular, particular, visible invisibility, the embryo of the nationally imagined community.”52 Printing, Anderson continues, also provided “a new fixity to language” and privileged “­languages-of-power,” thus creating a vehicle that was well suited for communicating tradition and could eclipse past and once honoured forms of expression.53 Anderson’s ideas are not without their critics;54 however, his observations on print capitalism can be applied to the expansion of the press in

49 Chartier, The Culture of Print, 1. For more on the intersection of print, knowledge, and early modern society also see Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, and The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe; Blair and Grafton, eds, The Transmission of Culture in Early Modern Europe; Grafton, Shelford, and Siraisi, New Words, Ancient Texts; Isaac and McKay, eds, The Mighty Engine. 50 Raven, London Booksellers and American Customers, xviii. 51 Some works that argue the parameters of this transatlantic network of print distribution and that focus on the particular efforts of English, Scottish, and American booksellers and publishers include Joyce et al., eds, Printing and Society in Early America; Amory and Hall, eds, A History of the Book in America; Raven, London Booksellers and American Customers; Sher, The Enlightenment and the Book. 52 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 47. 53 Ibid., 47–8. 54 For example, Trish Loughran writing on the American experience has argued that Anderson’s theories are “ahistorical, a postindustrial fantasy of preindustrial print’s efficacy as a cross-regional agent.” Instead of one nationalistic public sphere, she has argued a diverse and regionalised existence of multiple reading publics. Loughran, The Republic in Print, xix.

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eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City. Local print productions led to the growth of an informal community that exhibited a specific awareness of what it believed were acceptable cultural norms and traditions. The efforts of this colonial print community of printers, readers, and contributors advanced the English language as a preferred colonial vernacular. Furthermore, as Samuel Neilson observed in the pages of his almanac, the domestic press communicated a new language of reason, imbued with the arts and sciences, an ars artium conservatix with the power to both convey and fix communication in time and space. Where Anderson equates developments in print with a corresponding rise of nationalism, in the context of eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City this nationalist spirit can, rather, be seen as a public embrace of Englishness, or in a broader sense, of Britishness. The British North American press imprinted an idealized or imagined sense of Britain and British tradition upon the new colonial environment. Scholars, however, argue that the concept of Britishness in the eighteenth century was a fluid and paradoxical one.55 While early eighteenthcentury authors such as Richard Steele (1672–1729) and John Oldmixion (1673–1742) may have addressed a “British nation” or “British empire” in their writings, today it is difficult to understand to what extent the inhabitants of the British Isles saw themselves as a cohesive group. As in the case of Great Britain, it is unclear if any sense of a uniform British identity existed in late eighteenth-century Quebec or Nova Scotia. Politicians in Great Britain and colonial administrators in Nova Scotia and in Quebec saw colonists as being ostensibly British. Eighteenth-century writers such as William Burke (1730?–1798), who advocated for increased colonial representation, declared that all “subjects of the British dominions,” including foreigners who enjoyed the benefits of the British, owed their allegiance to Britain. And in turn, the British parliament needed to represent them.56 In the Westminster debates over the Quebec Act of 1774,

55 Colley, Britons; Hall, “Introduction: Thinking the Postcolonial, Thinking the Empire,” in Cultures of Empire, ed. Hall, 1–33; and Wilson, The Island Race. 56 Burke wrote six “incontrovertible maxims” concerning identity and representation including: “I. None of the subjects of the British dominions can alienate themselves from their allegiance. II. By retiring to uninhabited lands, they do not alienate themselves from such allegiance. III. All foreigners settling in the British dominions, enjoying the protection of the British laws and government, and accepting grants of lands from such government, are to be considered in the same light of obedience as natural born subjects. IV. No laws made by such settlers can have any force, merely on the authority of those who frame them. They must be ratified by their principal. V. Much the greatest part of the people of Great Britain are not represented in parliament. VI. There is no such thing as virtual representation.” Burke, An Account of the European Settlements in America, 34–5.

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Introduction 17

the population of the colony was often perceived as being comprised of “Canadians” and “the British subjects settled in Canada.”57 Later, the failure of Nova Scotia and Quebec to join with the dissenting thirteen colonies in the American Revolution led to rhetoric that once again defined the colonies in political terms as British. As Governor Francis Legge (1719?–1783) observed in 1775, Nova Scotia was a colony of British subjects with the “profess’d Attachments to our gracious Sovereign, and willing Submission to the Supreme Legislature of the British Empire.”58 Nonetheless, the degree to which the colonists of Halifax and Quebec City saw themselves as uniquely British is difficult to ascertain. Both capitals comprised groups who could identify themselves in a variety of ways including by profession, religion, or ethnicity. Halifax, for example, boasted strong commercial and familial ties to New England as well as a large number of recently immigrated German Protestants. Similarly, the older community of Quebec City also had a mix of English, Scots, Irish, Welsh, German, or American peoples as well as French-Canadian Roman Catholics, francophone Hugenots, and people of mixed ancestries. Such divisions could have grave consequences. As historian P.J. Marshall writes, the American Revolution saw the British Empire – predicated on a common belief of Britishness – torn apart over different interpretations of what exactly being British meant.59 Considering the intricacies that existed on individual and community levels, printer William Moore’s description of Quebec City as being comprised of both “British Europeans” and “Canadians” speaks volumes.60 While acknowledging the distinctive nature of French Canadians, Moore was undoubtedly trying to be inclusive, tipping his hat to the many different peoples of mixed European origin under the mantle of British rule. Moore’s choice of words offers further proof of the complexities that surrounded colonial identity. Colonial society was comprised of a great number of different peoples – as the term “British European” acknowledged, highlighting this diversity while emphasizing the common British reality of the colony. As Moore’s definition reveals, being “British” was perceived as more than a mere measure of ethnic or geographic origins. It was a practical term that described governance but could also encompass shared beliefs, traditions, and ideologies. Historians such as Jerry Bannister, Liam Riordan, and John Reid have recently explored the nature of a loyalist

57 “Debates on the Quebec Act, in the House of Commons, 1774,” inThe Concept of Empire, ed. Bennett. 58 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 25 July 1775, 2. 59 Marshall, The Making and Unmaking of Empires, 374. 60 Quebec Herald, 28 December 1789, 44.

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ideology present in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic. Indeed, Bannister argues that one cannot fully understand the much-debated rise of a modern liberal order in Canada without understanding its predecessor: the “early modern loyalist order.”61 British North Americans could be both loyalist and liberal, Bannister writes, and early Canada can be seen as a counter-revolutionary environment that fostered a distinctly different liberalism than that experienced elsewhere in America. As both Bannister and Riordan observe, loyalism was not the sole bastion of the Tories but rather an ideology widely shared amongst a diverse and disparate range of colonial peoples. Furthermore, “if republican ideology was a hybrid of classical ideas conceived in a Machiavellian moment” – they write, acknowledging the legacy of historian John Pocock – “loyalism drew on principles deeply embedded in English politics, philosophy and literature.”62 It was through the colonial newspapers that eighteenth-century British North Americans were informed of British politics, philosophy, and literature. While identity was an ethereal construct in late eighteenth-­century Halifax and Quebec City, members of the colonial print community – those printers, readers, correspondents, and advertisers who united around the press – demonstrated a clear taste for news, expression, and literary and cultural touchstones emanating from the British Isles. The eighteenth-century British Atlantic has been characterized as a region of continuous interaction and movement.63 On the edges of an Empire predicated by networks of commerce, commodities, information, and exchange,64 appropriately British-styled information was essential. English-language press before the American Revolution can be seen as a means for British Americans to 61 Bannister, “Canada as Counter-revolution: The Loyalist Order Framework in Canadian History, 1750–1840,” in Liberalism and Hegemony, eds Constant and Ducharme, 99. 62 Bannister and Riordan, “Loyalism and the British Atlantic, 1660–1840,” in The Loyal Atlantic, eds Bannister and Riordan, 10. 63 For further elaboration of this concept see Greene, “Beyond Power: Paradigm Subversion and Reformulation and the Re-creation of the Early Modern Atlantic World,” in Interpreting Early America: Historiographical Essays, ed. Greene, 18–19, 40–2, and Bailyn, Atlantic History, 55, 61–3. 64 Steele, The English Atlantic; Armitage, “Greater Britain”; Armitage and Braddick, The British Atlantic World; Greene, “Beyond Power: Paradigm Subversion and Reformulation and the Re-creation of the Early Modern Atlantic World,” in Interpreting Early America: Historiographical Essays, ed. Greene, 17–42; Greene and Morgan, Atlantic History; Mancke, “Negotiating an Empire,” in Negotiated Empires, eds Daniels and Kennedy, 235–65; Mancke and Shammas, eds, The Creation of the British Atlantic World; Bailyn, Atlantic History; Reid and Mancke, “From Global Processes to Continental Strategies: The Emergence of British North America to 1783,” in Canada and the British Empire, ed. Buckner.

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Introduction 19

r­ econnect with a social, cultural, and intellectual life in Great Britain that was otherwise unavailable in the colonies. After the American Revolution, this reaching out to Great Britain took on a more overtly political and patriotic tone, expressing a need to show the division between British Americans and the Americans of the United States. In this sense, the print culture of late eighteenth-century British North America functioned much differently than elsewhere in America, seen by historians as being marked by a rising egalitarianism, the communication of republican ideas, and a dismantling of elite structures and colonial privilege.65 On the other hand, the English-language press in Halifax and Quebec City reinforced colonialism and the Empire. As the writer Verax wrote to the Nova-Scotia Magazine in 1789: “Were I to name the most striking peculiarity of our neighbours in the United States, I would say that they are set apart from the rest of mankind by a certain littleness.”66 As we shall see, members of the colonial print community did indeed engage actively with a prevailing transatlantic ideology of loyalism. The newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City offer tangible examples of how British politics, philosophy, and literature shaped the reading public. Yet for this literate public – this colonial print community – being loyal, indeed being British, meant being part of something larger: a subject in a world-wide empire, a member in a most sociable race of people boasting a rich legacy of literature, political debate, legal precedents, scientific advancement, and folk customs. Print offered a means to publicly broadcast both a steadfast loyalty to Britain and an allegiance to more local interests. This flexibility of expression that newspapers offered was well suited to serve those members of the colonial print community who were part of the colonial elite, or aspired to provincial power. Historian Ian K. Steele has argued that, contrary to the popular belief, it was the colonial elite – not the mother country – that had the most to gain from imperialism of the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English Atlantic. “Provincial elites were beneficiaries of empire,” Steele writes, and “the ambiguity of being the vehicles of cosmopolitan influence and the defence against that influence did not produce great difficulties.”67 Drawing upon Carl Berger’s

65 The idea of print as a means of diffusing a critical republican ideology is longstanding and remains prevalent. For examples see Gordon, Anglo-American Literary Relations; Bridenbaugh, Cities in Revolt; Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution; Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America; Brown, Knowledge Is Power; Warner, The Letters of the Republic; Ziff, Writing in the New Nation; Grasso, A Speaking Aristocracy. 66 Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, no. 3 (1789): 204. 67 Steele, “The Empire and Provincial Elites,” 32.

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work on nineteenth-century Canadian nationalism, Steele likens this situation to a “stacking of loyalties” where colonial elites could possess a multivalent sense of identity. These individuals would then advance their own interests by choosing the allegiance that would resonate the most in a given situation.68 Indeed, the newspapers in both Halifax and Quebec City were employed by some as a tool of elite formation, to broadcast sentiments that could appeal equally to the colonists’ sense of transatlantic commonality or provincial uniqueness. This was particularly the case, as we shall see, with the relationship that existed between colonial print and theatres, clubs, and coffeehouses. Yet, the newspaper was not solely the vehicle of a manipulative colonial elite. The uses of the medium were broad. It was both a tool to promote commerce and a literary means to escape the marketplace, a font of transatlantic gossip and an avenue to diffuse practical knowledge and it provided a way to form and inform public opinion and behaviour.

68 Ibid.

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P ART on e Print as Sociability

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1 Driving the Stage Coach: The Printers of Halifax and Quebec City

“A Newspaper exactly resembles a stage coach – in which the Printer may be said to be the driver,” read a letter that William Moore excerpted in 1790 for his Quebec Herald. “The various things produced,” it continued, “may be likened to the passengers, who come from all parts of the world. Perhaps the conversation of many of these passengers may not be quite so pleasant – but without they are very riotous indeed, the poor driver does his duty honestly.”1 The letter, originally published in the London newspaper The World, resonated not only with Moore, but also with printers across British North America. From the earliest days of the press in both Quebec City and Halifax, printers encouraged the development of a colonial print community. They drove the stage coach, the print vehicle for literate colonists to improve their knowledge, fashion their identity, and suggest the shape that colonial society should take. Printers both fashioned and were members of this community. In spite of differences in origins, personality, and practice, they believed in an overarching power of print to influence opinion and inspire action. Printers – employing a rhetoric utilized throughout the eighteenth-century British Atlantic – also extolled the virtues of the press. For them, print was essential in the promotion of education, diffusion of useful knowledge, protection of British liberties, and betterment of society. Committed to the expansion of knowledge through print, their productions appealed to those who were educated, or who aspired to the benefits that education could offer. Printers were also well aware of the nature and tastes of the reading public they both created and served. The eighteenth-century British American newspaper was inherently political, and printers in both Great Britain and colonial America had to be mindful of the financial and legal

1 Quebec Herald, 30 September 1790, 358.

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ramifications of their productions.2 Printers in Halifax and Quebec City had to walk a fine line between liberty and propriety, or risk the loss of patronage from an already elite base of subscribers, advertisers, and state officials. Since a significant part of colonial print readership in both capitals included the governing authorities, printers tended to stay away from inflammatory subjects, or at least to couch potentially controversial topics in a variety of non-confrontational ways. Courting both government patronage and the approval of readers, printers often used the promotion of useful knowledge and of British American innovation as a means to avoid thornier political issues. Colonial newspapers became vehicles for the expression of British literary touchstones and the promotion of the English constitution and its liberties, replete with familiar transatlantic tales and tropes. The carefully crafted productions of colonial printers were sometimes patriotic and sometimes pragmatic, emulating the style found across the Atlantic during the era of the Enlightenment in Britain. A larger colonial print community imbibed these print messages as did an emerging colonial elite who used print to fashion themselves, inform their actions, and shape their provincial environment. Printing presses did not exist in either Nova Scotia or Quebec until the second half of the eighteenth century and the consolidation of British authority. Of the initial 2,576 settlers to Halifax in 1749,3 two were listed as stationers, one as a bookbinder, and a fourth, Herbert Jefferie, was a printer.4 No evidence exists, however, of these individuals engaging in the commercial book trade, or setting up a commercial press.5 Three 2 Charges of sedition and libel suits confronted the British printer throughout the eighteenth century with victories and losses widely publicized. Kropf, “Libel and Satire in the Eighteenth Century,” 153–68; Black, The English Press in the Eighteenth Century; Barker, Newspapers, Politics and Public Opinion in Late Eighteenth-Century England; Barker and Burrows, eds, Press, Politics and the Public Sphere in Europe and North America, 1760–1820. There were also potential financial implications for printers perceived as being too political in their business. In pre-Revolutionary War America some employed a middle of the road approach to ensure continued patronage as in Botein, “‘Meer Mechanics’ and an Open Press.” 3 This includes men, women and children, servants, and 500 Royal Navy sailors. See Akins, “History of Halifax City,” 5. 4 See Lochhead, “Herbert Jefferie – First Canadian Printer?,” 19–20. A typo in Lochhead’s essay cites bookbinder Thomas Backwell as Thomas Blackwell. For complete list of Cornwallis settlers, see Akins, ed., Selections from the Public Documents of the Province of Nova Scotia, 506. 5 C. Bruce Fergusson writes that “Herbert Jefferie, a printer, arrived at Halifax with the Cornwallis expedition in 1749, but it is not known if he brought type, or if he printed anything at Halifax.” Fergusson, “Eighteenth-century Halifax,” 36. Fergusson cites both J.J. Stewart and Thomas Akins as evidence of this; but oddly, neither mention Jefferie, nor does the above-mentioned stationer appear in their accounts. Stewart, in fact, states a “very conspicuous defect” of the Cornwallis expedition was that: “among all the various classes of

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Printers of Halifax and Quebec City 25

years after the founding of Halifax, Bartholomew Green Jr arrived to set up what has been generally acknowledged as Nova Scotia’s first press.6 Green was the son of a famous Boston printer and his migration to Halifax illustrates the strong ties between the two regions.7 After Green’s sudden illness and death in 1751, fellow Bostonian and former partner John Bushell arrived in the town and started publishing the Halifax Gazette the following year.8 Bushell and the successive proprietors of the Halifax Gazette carried the distinction of being the official King’s Printer. The Gazette was the longest standing press in Nova Scotia, operating continuously (with the exception of the period between 1765 and 1769) from 1752 to the end of the eighteenth century.9 Other printers soon followed such as Anthony Henry (who took over the Gazette after the death of Bushell), Robert Fletcher, John Howe, and William Minns, all of whom founded their own respective newspapers. The first press in the colony of Quebec did not arrive until after the resolution of the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). In 1764, William Brown and Thomas Gilmore – two printers from Philadelphia – moved to Quebec City, opened up a printing office, and began printing the Quebec Gazette.10 Like the printers of the Halifax Gazette, Brown and Gilmore received official government patronage as the King’s Printer. Similarly, the Quebec Gazette was published (with a few notable exceptions) continuously from its establishment until the nineteenth century. After Thomas Gilmore’s death in 1773, William Brown continued the newspaper until his passing in 1789 after which the paper was run by successive members of the Neilson family.11 Along with the Quebec Gazette, two other newspapers printed by William Moore and William Vondenvelden were briefly published in the capital during the eighteenth century. Geography occasionally made it challenging for the printers of Halifax and Quebec to provide news in a timely fashion. Delays in receiving news artisans represented on board the thirteen transports, there does not appear to have been one working representative of the art preservative of all arts.” Stewart, “Early Journalism in Nova Scotia,” 91. 6 As with most historic “firsts” there is some debate whether Green was actually the first printer in Halifax. See Fergusson, “Eighteenth-century Halifax,” 36; Lochhead, “Herbert Jefferie – First Canadian Printer?” 19–20. 7 The New England / Nova Scotian connection has been argued in many places, most prominently in Brebner, The North Atlantic Triangle; MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces; Rawlyk, Nova Scotia’s Massachusetts and further elaborated in Margaret Conrad and Barry Moody’s edited works on planters in Nova Scotia. 8 Stewart, “Early Journalism in Nova Scotia,” 92–3; Fergusson, “Eighteenth-century Halifax,” 36. 9 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 599–610. 10 Ibid., 629. 11 Ibid.

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1.1  A late, but welcome arrival. Colonial subscribers eagerly awaited the printing of the first edition of the Halifax Gazette. The masthead reflects what was thought to be the commercial and civilizing aspects of colonialism depicting Halifax both as a thriving sea port and a beacon of urbanity emerging from the forest. Halifax Gazette, 23 March 1752.

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Printers of Halifax and Quebec City 27

can be attributable to both how newspapers were produced and how information was supplied to publishers. Most North American newspapers in the eighteenth century were printed on a weekly or bi-weekly basis12 (often on the day the post would leave the city) and then distributed throughout the countryside. Printed news was most commonly brought to publishers by travellers, or with the captains of the various packet ships that carried mail from the major British centres and colonies. In spite of the existence of direct shipping routes, it was not unusual for news to take more circuitous paths. Throughout the eighteenth century, the inland port of Quebec City maintained strong ties with cities in New York, Vermont, Nova Scotia, and later New Brunswick as centres from which news could be indirectly relayed.13 Halifax maintained strong ties with the West Indies, Philadelphia, New York, and, in particular, Boston. Indeed, much British and European news that arrived in Halifax had been forwarded from Boston, reflecting the long-standing commercial and familial bonds between the two centres. Printers promoted their productions as communicating the latest news, so when ships carrying their print cargo did not arrive, they resorted to inserting less timely anecdotes and general essays followed with public apologies. “For want of fresh occurrences,” John Bushell observed in his Halifax Gazette, “we hope that our publishing the following extraordinary Account will not be unacceptable to our readers.”14 In Quebec City, where the harbour closed during the winter months, the lack of news was particularly commonplace. To address this problem William Moore, the publisher of the Quebec Herald, solicited information from anyone who could provide it. “The printer’s Friends, Masters of Vessels, and transient Gentlemen, who have late papers, on their favouring him with an early loan, will in return be supplied

12 Even after the introduction of daily newspapers in North America (the Philadelphia Evening News, 1783), the majority of presses remained weekly in operation. The Quebec Herald experimented with a bi-weekly production before returning to the weekly format (Quebec Herald, 12 October 1789, 404). Isaiah Thomas writes that by 1810 there were 360 presses in the United States of America, twenty of which produced daily papers. The first daily paper in British North America was the Montreal Daily Advertiser in 1833. See Thomas, The History of Printing in America, 16–17. 13 The traditional connections amongst Quebec, Vermont, and New York in the movement of post became an issue of great concern after the American Revolution when no effective overland route to Nova Scotia meant that most inhabitants preferred sending their correspondence via the United States – as an anecdote excerpted from a Gentleman in the 1787 report from Postmaster General Hugh Finlay observed. See Library and Archives Canada (lac), MG23–GII9, Hugh Finlay fonds, Letter to Lord Dorchester from Hugh Finlay, 30 August 1797, 66–70. 14 Halifax Gazette, 16 February 1754, 1.

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with the late papers, free of expense, on the departure of the different vessels.”15 In spite of his best efforts, Moore was still confounded by the city’s location and occasionally faced periods bereft of news. “We have the disagreeable alternative of lamenting,” he wrote in one of his seasonal public apologies, “the present scarcity of Information, from which torpid state we hope soon to remove our readers by abundance of general intelligence.”16 Even Halifax, that boasted an ice-free harbour in the severest of winters,17 was not immune to the inherent delays of maritime communications. “Be candid,” Halifax’s Anthony Henry wrote to his readers in 1769, “and not expect to see this Chronicle fully executed with the News of the different Quarters of the World, either in one or a few Papers: As the Winter already set in, will deprive him for some Time of the Benefit of his British and Foreign Intelligence. – In this Situation he will endeavour, by a Variety of entertaining and instructive Pieces, to please his Subscribers.”18 In their advertising, newspaper printers often made unrealistic claims to the colonial print community, promising the “freshest news.” To mitigate a potentially negative response from the public, printers occasionally found themselves in the position where they had to acknowledge the realities of communications in the Atlantic World. the lives of printers in Halifax and Quebec city Colonial printers associated daily with other members of the print community. As historians Claude Galarneau and Gilles Gallichan observe, printers were highly visible in colonial society, situating their offices on busy public thoroughfares and attracting a large clientele of the literate public to their typically crowded offices.19 Literate colonists requested the printing of tickets, handbills, poems, cards, and other documents from local printers. From invitations to parties and concerts20 to funeral letters,21 from theatrical playbills22 to handbills advertising the flight of a “Runaway Negro”23 or the arrival of the circus,24 these records bear

15 Quebec Herald, 25 May 1789, 242. 16 Quebec Herald, 23 December 1790, 37. 17 Halifax Gazette, 23 March 1752, 2. 18 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 3 January 1769, 7. 19 Galarneau and Gallichan, “Working in the Trades,” in History of the Book in Canada, eds Fleming et al., 85–6. 20 “Brown / Neilson Shop Records,” in Early Canadian Printing, eds Fleming and Alston, 426, 428, 461. 21 Ibid., 430, 439, 455, 477, 479, 484, 489, 495, 498, 501, 504. 22 Ibid., 444, 464, 466, 473, 474, 479. 23 Ibid., 432, 455, 468. 24 Ibid., 507, 508.

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Printers of Halifax and Quebec City 29

witness to the domestic print trade and the literate circles that emanated from it. Printers, whether under the official patronage of the government or not, garnered the attention of, and interacted with, all levels of literate society. Considering their public role in colonial life, the majority of eighteenth-century printers in Halifax and Quebec City have left behind a comparatively scant archival record. Little is known of their personal lives, or of the day-to-day business of the press. Aside from the records of William Brown and the Neilson Family, which chronicle the production of the Quebec Gazette,25 biographers have had to rely on disparate and ancillary records to piece together what is known of these men.26 From what records do exist, we can glean little vignettes of the printers’ lives that reveal quite divergent origins, training, personality, behavior, and business practices. For example, William Moore was a professional actor and toured the West Indies and colonial America before settling in Quebec City in the 1780s. There is no evidence that he had apprenticed or otherwise engaged in the printing trade before his arrival in Quebec City.27 On the other hand, Bartholomew Green Jr and John Bushell, the first printers of the Halifax Gazette, grew up with the trade in their native Boston.28 Similarly, William Brown and Thomas Gilmore, the co-­ founders of the Quebec Gazette, were Philadelphian printers of Scottish and Irish descent respectively.29 Anthony Henry, who took over as the printer of the Halifax Gazette in 1761, served as a fifer in the British Army

25 These records are found in the Neilson Collection, R6446–0–3–E (formerly MG24–B1) at lac. A transcription can be found in “Brown / Neilson Shop Records,” in Early Canadian Printing: A Supplement. Also see Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 663; Gervais, “Brown, William,” volume 4, and Chassé, Girard-Wallot, and Wallot, “Neilson, John,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 7, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 26 Such is the case for Thomas Gilmore (Quebec Gazette), William Moore (Quebec Herald), and William Vondenvelden (The Times), and for John Bushell (Halifax Gazette), Anthony Henry (Halifax Gazette), Robert Fletcher (Nova-Scotia Calendar), John Howe (Halifax Journal), and William Minns (Weekly Chronicle). Hare, “Vondenvelden, William,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 5; Elliott, “Fletcher, Robert,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 4; Beck, “Howe, John” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 6; Parker, “Minns, William” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 6; Ryder, “Moore, William,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 4; Chard, “Green, Bartholomew,” and “Bushell, John,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 3 and 4; Gervais, “Gilmore, Thomas,” and “Brown, William,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 4; Lochhead, “Henry, Anthony Anton Henreich or Henrich,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 4, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013); also Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 661–4. 27 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 663. 28 Ibid., 661. 29 Ibid., 663.

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and is rumoured to have worked in the printing business in Europe and in New Jersey, but his actual training and education are unclear.30 Differences in origins and experience were not the only factors that separated printers in the capitals. In an era notable for the growing support of emancipation, William Brown preferred employing Black slaves to run his press at the Quebec Gazette over engaging apprentices, whom he found unreliable.31 Anthony Henry, on the other hand – who printed the Halifax Gazette and its successive titles from 1761 to 1800 – employed apprentices such as his godson Anthony Henry Holland,32 early print historian Isaiah Thomas, and his own successors Messrs Gay and Merlin. There is no evidence that Henry employed slaves and, to the contrary, it is reported that his first wife was a free Black woman.33 Such distinctions in business practices could reflect greater differences in outlook and personality as was the case with Brown who raised the ire of many residents of Quebec City. Local merchant Johann Heinrich (Henry) Juncken wrote in his diary that Brown was the “greatest Sot … in all of Canada”34 and fellow Quebec City resident and printer William Moore of the Quebec Herald publicly berated him in an obituary. Upon Brown’s death, Moore wrote that the Gazette’s printer had died without a will and thus that his entire estate fell to his brother. Paralleling the situation to the death of Lord Bath, Moore concluded with Lord Chesterfield’s unfavourable comments on Bath observing that: “he cared for nobody; the words give and bequeath were too shocking for him to repeat, so he left all in one word to a brother.”35 Moore’s disdain, however, appears to have been reserved for Brown and not his successor Samuel Neilson. Later in 1789, a devastating fire destroyed the offices of the Quebec Gazette. Neilson published a note of

30 Ibid., 661–2. 31 In the Neilson Family fonds (lac, MG24–B1) Brown complains to Philadelphian printer William Dunlop about his difficulty in finding skilled apprentices and asks for Dunlop to find a slave that could be used instead. An enslaved man named Joe worked for the Quebec Gazette and had a reputation for escaping and getting into trouble. See LeMay, “Joe,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 4, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 32 Tratt, “Holland, Anthony Henry,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 6, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 33 Isaiah Thomas is credited with publicizing this though he is somewhat unkind to his former employer, implying that Henry’s marriage with the “sable female” was orchestrated so that he could obtain her property. See Thomas, A History of Printing in America With a Biography of Printers, volume 1, 360. 34 Bibliothèque et Archives nationales de Québec (banqq), P119, P1, Copie dactylographiée du journal Henry Juncken 1788–1789, 23 March 1789, 257. 35 Quebec Herald, 30 March 1789, 171.

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thanks simultaneously in the Gazette and in Moore’s Quebec Herald to those who had saved his business and equipment from the flames. “My thanks are particularly due to Mr. Moore,” Neilson observed, “not only for his zealous efforts during the fire, in common with others, but also for his liberality in freely offering me the use of his press to print the Quebec Gazette until such time as my own is put into proper order.”36 These rare glimpses show that printers in Halifax and Quebec City were tradesmen in a sociable business marked both by the harbouring of grudges and by working together in mutual respect. In summary, printers who lived and worked in these colonial capitals during the second half of the eighteenth century – like their counterparts in other British North American colonies – were an eclectic mix of individuals with different backgrounds, education, work ethics, and moral codes. Such differences amongst printers, however, did not preclude shared ideologies, professional experiences, or economic circumstances. Bank­ ruptcy and failure were indeed harsh possibilities that faced all colonial printers. Apart from the Gazette, which received official government patronage, three other papers were introduced in Quebec City between 1764 and 1800. Of those the average lifespan was approximately two and a half years.37 Halifax saw six differently titled publications in the five decades after the printing of the first newspaper in 1752, two of which remained in business for less than three years.38 By necessity, printers sometimes chastised readers publicly for not paying subscriptions. Notices attesting to the inability of the printer to continue without subscription were not empty threats, as the failure of several other publications including the Nova-Scotia Magazine was attributed to the lack of subscriptions.39 During the five-year run of the Quebec Herald, William Moore frequently published notices for payment, especially to those colonists who lived in the region that would become Upper Canada. “The Printer presents his respects to his subscribers above Montreal, who have

36 Quebec Herald, 28 December 1789, 45; Quebec Gazette, 31 December 1789, 2. 37 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 599–650. In addition to the Quebec Gazette, the three other papers were the Courier de Québec ou herault François, published by Moore and edited by James Tanswell, which lasted for two months, the Quebec Herald (1788–1793), also published by Moore, and Vonden-Velden’s Times / Le cours de temps (1794–1795). 38 Ibid., 599–650. From the end of the American Revolution to the turn of the nineteenth century, three publications operated in Halifax: the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, the Halifax Journal, and The Weekly Chronicle. In 1787, Henry solicited subscribers for a German language weekly paper entitled Die welt und die Neuschottlaendishce correspondenz, which was only published for three years. 39 “To the Public,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 5, no. 3 (1792).

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not paid, nor given directions where the Printer is to call for payment,” Moore wrote in January 1791. Citing the “narrowness of his circumstances,” Moore lamented the fact that he could not provide credit to those subscribers in arrears and implored that they, as well as “Gentlemen in other parts of the country,” should “take the hint” and pay their accounts.40 Unfortunately for Moore, the narrowness of his circumstances led to his closing the Quebec Herald permanently the following year. In spite of the economic challenges of the business, the constant badgering of subscribers, and the ever-present possibility of financial ruin, printers continued to ply their trade in the colonial capitals. While financial gain was undoubtedly a motivation, printers also exhibited an enthusiasm for the press and a sense of duty to improve society that transcended monetary concerns. The subscription records of the Quebec Gazette show that a substantial number of newspapers were given to various readers and organizations free of charge. These “gratis” subscribers originally included the colonial secretary (as the Gazette was used as the official record of the government), the custom house, various post offices in the colony, and the post rider.41 Providing select government departments and officials with free newspapers was part of the obligation of being the King’s Printer. Printers also offered free newspapers to those who assisted in the import, distribution, and production of their publications. However, printers also offered free newspapers to a large variety of other individuals where no formal obligation existed. In 1769, over thirty printers, stationers, and schoolmasters from across America received free subscriptions to the Quebec Gazette.42 By 1786, this diffusion of free newspapers was truly transatlantic in nature, with copies being sent to John Anderson’s printing office in the Barbados and the Post Office in London, as well as to that city’s New York and New England coffeehouses.43 This list was further expanded to include religious orders such as the Ursulines, Hôtel Dieu, and the Roman Catholic Seminary.44 While there are not corresponding records from other colonial printers, it is clear that they also participated in this exchange of free newspapers. 40 Quebec Herald, 20 January 1791, 65. 41 lac, MG24–B1, Neilson Family Collection, Volume 46, File 3, Subscription Book, 1765–1769, Reel C–15611. 42 lac, MG24–B1, Neilson Family Collection, Volume 46, File 4, Subscription Book, 1769, Reel C–15611. 43 lac, MG24–B1, Neilson Family Collection, Volume 46, File 5, Subscription Book, 1784–86, Reel C–15611. 44 lac, MG24–B1, Neilson Family Collection, Volume 46, File 13, Subscription Book, Gratis, 1789–92, Reel C–15611.

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Indeed, other printers were often cited on the “return” list in the Gazette records. Their only obligation for the receipt of the Quebec Gazette was to return their own productions in kind.45 That printers such as William Moore, Anthony Henry, John Howe, and William Minns remained on the Quebec Gazette “gratis” list implies that they did indeed return the favour. The keeping of such “gratis” lists underscores that printers, in addition to having contractual obligations, also believed that they had a greater societal obligation. Sending free subscriptions to postmasters, printers, and religious orders served to diffuse the knowledge, opinion, and messages conveyed in print to even broader audiences. The editors of the Nova-Scotia Magazine and of the Quebec Magazine demonstrated a belief in the public importance, over the profitability, of their respective publications. In 1789, the members of the newly formed Quebec Agriculture Society asked about the motives behind the publishing of Samuel Neilson’s Quebec Magazine. In a written response to the Society, Neilson elucidated his altruistic goals, reassuring the Society that “the persons concerned in that proposed publication flatter themselves with no lucrative views for the first years and are only actuated by the desire of introducing an establishment which in other Countries has contributed greatly to dispel ignorance & to disseminate knowledge in every Branch of the Arts and Sciences whether useful or entertaining.”46 Likewise in Halifax, the Rev. William Cochran (the first editor of the Nova-Scotia Magazine) wrote in announcing his retirement that when he: “first conceived the design for promoting a periodical publication in this Province, he was more influenced by a sincere desire of being useful, than by any hope of emolument to himself … and that ingenious and public-spirited men would be induced to offer their speculations or experience or such subjects, when means should be provided of preserving their labours, and of making them generally useful to the community.”47 It is clear that Neilson and Cochran, like other eighteenth-century printers and editors, saw a value in print to improve society. Accordingly, they fashioned themselves publicly as being more interested in this value of improvement than in financial gain.

45 Ibid. 46 banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 5, “Copy Book of Letters Written on the business of the Quebec Branch of the Agriculture Society,” 1789–1799. 47 “To the Public,” The Nova-Scotia Magazine 2 (1790): 488.

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the language of print discourse In the newspapers of Halifax, English was the principal language of this discourse of improvement. The notable exception was Anthony Henry’s Die Welt und die Neuschottlaendische Correspondenz [The World and the Nova Scotia Correspondent], which catered to the region’s large German community. In 1788, Henry – of German descent himself – began printing the newspaper, and promoting it as a useful and much- desired publication in light of the perceived dearth of “decent German” publications.48 This scarcity of German-language print in Halifax made it necessary for Henry to rely solely on papers from Great Britain, and he observed in the newspaper’s prospectus that the new publication would “incorporate all curious events of the four continents which I will receive from English papers.”49 As no copies of the Die Welt remain, it is impossible to determine whether it was merely a translation of his long-standing Englishlanguage Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle. Even if that was not the case, it is clear that Henry received his news from the same British newspapers, regardless of the language in which published. Unlike the Gazette in Halifax, the Quebec Gazette was a bilingual newspaper from its beginnings in 1764. All government proclamations, most advertisements, and a selection of reader opinion were available in both French and English. Yet, as the noted bibliographer Marie Tremaine observed, until the 1790s its British American printers struggled with the French translation of its content.50 Technically a paper of two languages, the Gazette was, in fact, conceived and written in English (from a British perspective) and translated into French. By the last decades of the eighteenth century, French Canadians who wanted a French-language newspaper edited by a francophone had to turn outside of the capital to Montreal and the productions of Fleury Mesplet. However, this was not due to lack of trying. For example, in 1788 printer William Moore proposed a French-language paper for Quebec City that failed to come to fruition. The failure of Moore’s French-language version of the Quebec Herald may indicate that FrenchCanadian readers in the capital had found their print voice with Mesplet, or that they were otherwise uninterested in supporting what they believed would be another British paper translated into French.51 48 “Die Welt und die Neuschottlaendische Correspondenz,” in A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, ed. Tremaine, 619. 49 Ibid. 50 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 631–3. 51 Moore writes, curiously in English, to thank all those who supported his plan for a French-language paper, “there not being subscribers sufficient to pay for the paper.” Quebec Herald, 15 December 1788, 25.

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This is not to say that the printers of Quebec City were ignorant of the reading tastes of the French Canadians, or failed to make overtures to this community. Printers often included essays or news that were directed to the “new subjects” in the colony, and Moore’s attempt to establish a French-language newspaper also reflected this awareness of a potential audience. There is even some evidence that printers occasionally used different strategies to engage French readers specifically. For example, every January – as was the tradition in many American newspapers – the printer of the Quebec Gazette would print a humorous poem entitled Étrennes du garcon qui port la Gazette de Quebec aux pratiques, or Verses of the Printer’s Boy Who Carries the Quebec Gazette to the Customers. From the few remaining copies that have both the English and French versions printed together, it is clear that the French poem was not merely a translation of the English. Instead, the French poem was an entirely different verse complete with different jokes and allusions. This contrast is most clearly seen in the verse published in 1791. In the English version, readers are told of the importance of the “freedom the press triumphant maintains” – an “empire of reason” – and references are made to the works of Milton. On the other hand, the French version tells of the power of the press to report on the events, “qui arrive en Europe et surtout dans la France,” or to bring news of happenings “à Bruxelles, à Londres, à Lisbonne, à Madrid, et à Constantinople aussi.”52 Both verses tell of the importance of the press; however, the English-language verse clearly frames this power in a British fashion, a perspective that is altogether missing from the French-language verse. Printers in Quebec were thus aware of the existence of a French-language readership with interests and perspectives different than those of the English-language community. In spite of occasional attempts to engage this French-language readership directly, the papers of eighteenth-century Quebec City nonetheless remained oriented to British news and literature, and were operated by Anglophone printers of British American origins. Indeed, claims that the press was a tool of social improvement took on distinctly British and patriotic overtones in Halifax and Quebec. The creation of the Quebec Magazine, Samuel Neilson wrote, was motivated through the use of the press for improvement in “other Countries.”53

52 Verses of the Printer’s Boy who carries the Quebec Gazette to the Customers / Étrennes du garcon qui port la Gazette de Quebec aux pratiques, Quebec: Quebec Gazette Office, 1791, CIHM #95176. 53 banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 5, “Copy Book of Letters Written on the business of the Quebec Branch of the Agriculture Society,” 1789–1799.

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Neilson’s purview was indeed broad, finding and republishing articles that hailed from Britain, Europe, and the nascent United States of America. However, Neilson did not adopt wholesale the newest philosophies, criticisms, or observations in print. His selection was directed by a belief in the need for only information palatable to the British colonial ideal. Representative of this selection, the full title of the Quebec Magazine, “a useful and entertaining repository of science, morals, history, politics &c.” also clearly reassured readers that it was “adapted for the use of British America.” The Rev. Cochran with his Nova-Scotia Magazine was even less subtle in his stated editorial choices. He clearly writes that the goal of the magazine was “to preserve and diffuse a taste for British literature.”54 The editorial choices of Neilson and Cochran can also be seen in the productions of other printers in Halifax and Quebec City. Improvement, in the mind of the colonial printer and editor, became synonymous with the communication of British values and ideas. Printers understood the term British as a quantitative measurement, an adjective of place referring to literature actually penned in Great Britain. However, for printers in the capitals, “British” also took on a qualitative meaning describing a corpus of inherent values and beliefs that a Briton (no matter where) could read, accept, and even reproduce by means of print. politics and the colonial printer Printers, mindful of their role as public improvers, believed in the importance of keeping readers apprised of current political events. However, it was a task that required a careful avoidance of the sort of controversy that might offend government officials or British sensibilities. By the late eighteenth century, the newspaper had become vital to feed public interest in political events. Colonial readers, like those elsewhere in the British Atlantic, expected newspapers to foster controversy and could be disappointed if political intrigue did not exist. “Your paper being professed open to all parties,” a reader of the Quebec Herald wrote in 1790, “I am surprised so few champions for political controversy have entered the lists; Junius and Lepidus after declaiming on opposite sides, and throwing some dirt at each other, abandon the field, and a general apathy seems to prevail between the contending political parties.”55 To feed this appetite for politics, colonial printers dutifully published anonymous letters from foreign correspondents and excerpted parliamentary debates or reports from British and American newspapers to inform 54 “To the Public,” The Nova-Scotia Magazine 2 (1790): 488. 55 Quebec Herald, 8 March 1790, 127.

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readers of various European conflicts, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution. However, in spite of a popular expectation for politics in the press, printers in Halifax and Quebec City had to weigh their political observations carefully. Seminal press historian C.A. Cranfield observed that provincial printers in Britain tended, whenever possible, to frame their publications as non-partisan and leave the intrigues of Whig and Tory politics to the papers of the capital.56 Local stories and knowledge were discussed instead, often focusing on sensational crimes, prominent births and deaths, as well as royal occasions.57 This general style appears to have also appealed to the northern British provinces across the Atlantic. One method used to assure readers of a printer’s commitment to a non-­ partisan production was through the observance of appropriately British activities that occurred locally, in Britain, and across the empire. Printers in Halifax and Quebec City rarely missed an opportunity to observe the events surrounding the birthday of the monarch, the visit of a member of the Royal Family, or other activities events that were deemed appropriately British. Readers of the Halifax and Quebec gazettes were, of course, accustomed to official proclamations and proceedings from the governors, legislative councils, and assembly. These additional observations, however, went beyond the official messages published by the King’s Printer and could also be seen in the papers that did not receive direct government patronage. For example, the King’s Birthday was a large event in Halifax and Quebec City that from the earliest celebrations involved fireworks, military drills, and salutes. It offered printers an opportunity to reaffirm their loyalty to Britain by reporting on the patriotism of others. “Sunday last being the Anniversary of His Majesty’s Birth-Day,” observed John Bushell in his Halifax Gazette in 1754: when he enter’d the Seventy-Second Year of his Age, the same was observed here on Monday following, by the Discharge of the Canon at the New Battery on the other Side of the Harbour (being the first Time they have been fir’d since that Battery has been built) and also at George’s Island: In the Evening the Lieutenant Governor, and a great Number of Gentlemen and Ladies, who made a very handsome Appearance, which House was beautifully illuminated on the Occasion, and the Evening concluded, with Bonfires, general Illuminations, and great Demonstrations of Loyality and Joy.58

56 Cranfield, The Development of the Provincial Newspaper, 117–19. 57 Ibid., 93–116. 58 Halifax Gazette, 16 November 1754, 2.

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Such demonstrations of public loyalty also extended to other members of the Royal Family such as Queen Charlotte as this article observed a decade later in the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle: “This Day being the Anniversary of her Majesty’s Birth-Day, the same was observed here with the usual Solemnities. And in the Evening the following ode (wrote in England on the queen’s first Arrival there and never yet publickly perform’d) will be sung to Musick.”59 The article then included the ode in its entirety for readers to peruse in anticipation of the evening’s recital. The illness of King George particularly preoccupied printers. It offered another opportunity to express patriotic feeling as well as provide a story deemed of interest to readers. The restoration of King George from a bout of madness, for example, prompted several local celebrations which the printer of the Quebec Herald dutifully observed. In June 1789, William Moore observed that: “official accounts of the happy recovery of our universal admired King being received at the Castle of St. Louis, on Tuesday the 14, his Excellency the governor, at his Levee, was complimented on the occasion, by all ranks that are admitted.” These accounts, he continued, inspired several unique evening celebrations where a “general illumination took place” and a “feu de joie was fired by the Artillery.” In particular, he concluded, “several transparentcies [sic] were displayed; one on the Parade near the Château; at Sir Thomas Mills’s a very handsome one, with a number and variety of devises, in different panes of glass; – the Post Office was also splendid; – a very handsome one was exhibited by Mr. Antrobus. Mr. Ritchie, taylor, joined the transparencies, and several houses had printed labels expressive of their joy for this happy event.”60 Clearly, the state of the monarchy was a subject fraught with political intrigue. Yet for colonial printers, events such as the King’s recovery offered subject matter that could unify readers through patriotic feeling and a sense of reconnection to physically distant British occurrences. Such royal observances gave colonial printers, such as Moore, an opportunity to extol the British Empire for both its geographic size and its ethnic diversity. For example under the heading “Jamaican News” the Quebec Herald reported in July 1789 that: “last Monday morning, at the Jewish Synagogue in this town, prayers were offered up to heaven in the most devout and fervent manner, by numerous and respectable congregation, for the speedy restoration of the health of our beloved Sovereign and for the welfare of every other branch of the Royal family, with such force and 59 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 18 January 1774, 3. 60 Quebec Herald, 22 June 1789, 271.

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feeling as to excite tears of real affection and sympathy in all present; after which a considerable collection of money was made for the poor.”61 A report such as this, printed a month after the first reports of the recovery of King George, was included to illustrate the breath of the patriotic spirit and goodwill that Britons held and the commonality that they shared regardless of location. Reporting on the well-being and activities of the monarchy took a more local flare when Prince William Henry, the future King William IV and a captain in the Royal Navy, made frequent visits to Halifax and Quebec City. His brother Prince Edward Augustus (later a general and commander in chief of the British Forces in America) also lived in both capitals. Observations such as “On Thursday last the Pegasus Friday, commanded by His Royal Highness Prince William Henry, arrived here in fifteen days Passage from Jamaica” were not uncommon in the Halifax newspapers such as the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle.62 Likewise, reports of royal attendance at local events were positively glowing such as the occasion that Prince Edward attended the theatre in Halifax. “Tuesday evening, the Halifax Theatre was opened for the season to a very crowded and brilliant audience,” an article in the Halifax Journal proclaimed in January 1795. “On this occasion,” it continued, “His Royal Highness Prince Edward, honoured the performance with his presence.” While most accounts of local theatrical performances focused on the play, the printed observations of Prince upstaged the activity at hand: His Highness was welcomed by the reiterated shouts of the audience. – As soon as these ardent effusion of loyalty would permit, an occasional Prologue was delivered by one of the Managers … Immediately, after the conclusion of these performances, a handsome file of men, of the Royal Fusiliers, beautifully accoutered, arranged themselves, with their arms, on the front of the stage – the whole band of performers drew up behind them, and instantly began the favourite Anthem of “Good Save great George our King!” – Every heart seemed responsively to echo the enchanting sound. – “Rule Britannia” immediately succeeded.63

As printers in Halifax and Quebec City would excerpt baroque Royal observations from other newspapers, they would also – when the opportunity presented itself – describe local Royal occasions in similarly florid terms. This was clearly undertaken for the amusement of their own 61 Quebec Herald, 27 July 1789, 313. 62 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 3 July 1787, 3. 63 “Halifax Theatre,” Halifax Journal, 1 January 1795, 2.

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readers and, perhaps, in the hope that their observations might be republished in papers printed elsewhere in the British Atlantic World. The promotion of British institutions proved to be an important part of the colonial newspaper. However, it would be wrong to think that the colonial press merely parroted patriotic sentiment. For printers, the newspaper was also a key symbol of Britain, as both an instrument of communication and the embodiment of inherent rights and freedoms. Thus, colonial printers needed to be able to communicate the heated debates of the day, and uphold the freedom of the press, without alienating their readers and particularly the colonial authorities. Journalist Dean Jobb, in his study of the early days of the Halifax Gazette, argues that printer John Bushell walked this fine line admirably. Jobb observes that in spite of constant scrutiny Bushell still was able to publish controversial and graphic reports on Mi’kmaq raids, biting British American satire, and even the occasional critique of the colony’s military government.64 For Bushell’s successes, the removal of Anthony Henry as printer of the Halifax Gazette in 1766 for printing opinions contrary to the Stamp Act provides a stark reminder of the risks in printing overtly political sentiments.65 On the other hand, William Brown and Thomas Gilmore of the Quebec Gazette ceased operations voluntarily during the Stamp Act Crisis and during the hostilities prior to the American Revolution in 1775. Interestingly, in the case of the Stamp Act, Brown and Gilmore indignantly denied rumours that they had been cowed by colonial authorities. They felt it “necessary to declare,” in the “resurrected” Gazette, “that … our paper has been, and ever shall be, as free from the Inspection or Restrictions of any Person whatsoever, as it is of the late Stamp.” 66 Thus, Brown and Gilmore believed it important to maintain the public’s expectation of the Gazette as a proper British, and thus politically minded newspaper, in the face of rumours to the contrary.67 Three years after being ousted from his position as printer for publishing seditious material, a chastened Anthony Henry returned to the newspaper business.68 Rather than openly express his opinion, Henry displaced his political radicalism by praising a British radical, “that illustrious but 64 Jobb, “‘Creating Some Noise in the World,’” 205. 65 Stewart, “Early Journalism in Nova Scotia,” 100–8; Kesterton, A History of Journalism in Canada, 3–4, 8–9; Gallichan, “Political Censorship,” in History of the Book in Canada, eds Fleming et al., 321–3. 66 Quebec Gazette, 29 May 1766, 2. 67 Samuel Neilson, “The Quebec Gazette,” 1792; reprinted 1822. CIHM #62171. 68 In 1769, Henry returned to printing in Halifax, producing the Nova-Scotia Chronicle which was the first newspaper in either Quebec or Nova Scotia that did not receive official government patronage. The following year he purchased the Nova-Scotia Gazette from

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suffering Patriot”69 John Wilkes. Wilkes, as Henry’s readers would have known, was a controversial politician and printer who had been arrested for seditious libel and removed from the House of Commons in 1763 and again in 1768.70 Copies of Wilkes’s controversial organ, the North Briton, were sold in Halifax and editions of his other works would also have been readily available.71 The same year that Henry returned to printing, he announced in his paper that he was publishing for purchase a version of Britannia’s Intercession for the Deliverance of John Wilkes, Esq. from Persecution and Banishment.72 In 1770, he reported the official pardon given to Wilkes, reprinted a series of letters of support from Tobias Smollett to Wilkes from 1765, reported the proceedings of Wilkes’s release, and even noted Wilkes’s birthday to the readers of the Nova-Scotia Chronicle.73 Henry’s publication of stories marking the vindication of Wilkes, probably reflected his feelings concerning his own exoneration and return to publishing. If indeed he voiced his politics solely through the selection of articles, it was a strategy that proved successful, as he continued unobstructed in the position of King’s Printer until his death in 1800.74 On the other hand, some printers in the capitals were more critical of the colonial establishment in the opinions expressed in their newspapers. Printers who took this tack argued that their freedom to publish and the liberties that their newspapers promoted showed that the objective of their labours was inherently beneficial and, again, properly English or British in character. This fashioning can be traced to the beginnings of the domestic press, such as the notice from the “Printers to the Publick” published in the first Quebec Gazette that observed:

Robert Fletcher (the government-appointed printer who had replaced him in 1766) and was reinstated as King’s Printer. See Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 602, 604. 69 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 20 March 1770, 1. 70 Abrasive, arrogant, and anti-Scot, he used his short-lived newspaper the North Briton to voice his opinions, which also argued for greater religious tolerance and greater freedom of the press. Wilkes, who divided public opinion over the nature of the press and public propriety, ran for political office several times and was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1773. Habermas, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, 65–7; Colley, Britons, 105–16; Melton, Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe, 27–39. 71 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 7 August 1770, 255. 72 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 13 June 1769, 191. 73 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 9 January 1770, 2; Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 6 February 1770, 48; Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 13 February 1770, 54; Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 20 February 1770, 58. 74 Royal Gazette, 2 December 1800, 3.

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As every kind of knowledge is not only entertaining and instructive to individuals, but a benefit to the community, there is great reason to hope, that a Newspaper, properly conducted, and written with Accuracy, Freedom, and Impartiality, cannot fail of meeting with universal encouragement; especially as it is allowed by all, that such a paper is at present much wanted in this colony.75

Even though the Quebec Gazette would feature both the French and English languages, the printers left no doubt that the above characteristics were inherent in the English press tradition. Reassuring readers of the nature of the newspaper, they wrote that “we shall take particular care to collect the transactions and occurrences of our mother country, and to introduce every remarkable event, uncommon debates, extraordinary performance, and interesting turn of affairs that shall be thought to merit the notice of the reader as a matter of entertainment or that can be of service to the public as inhabitants of an English colony.”76 While all newspapers in the capitals printed articles and featured letters on the importance of the freedom of the press, the flamboyant William Moore of the Quebec Herald excelled at the expression of this right. Soon after publishing the first issue in 1788, he changed the more obscure Latin quotation in his masthead to the clearer English phrase: “Open to all parties, but influenced by none.”77 Later, in an editorial penned in 1789 he wrote: “OF all the liberties of which we boast, under a mild government, that of a free press is the most we prize, because it is the basis of all others; it is the great defender of our rights, and the support of our liberty and property. It has, therefore, been justly observed that ‘the liberty of the press,’ on which so much depends, ‘should be touched with a trembling hand.’”78 Charges of libel levied against Moore in 1790 by a leading colonial official led him to add the phrase “Vehicle of Freedom” to the footer of the paper.79 Moore’s libel troubles began on 23 August 1790, when he published a letter by merchants John Walter, John Jones, and George Irwin that was critical of colonel Henry Caldwell, head of the militia. Even by the colourful standards of the Herald, few letters of equal measure had been featured previously. The letter began with twelve stanzas of Hudibrastic verse and then cut to the quick with its satire: “England may boast a Newton, a Chatham, or a Marlborough, we can also in this Country bring forward to

75 Quebec Gazette, 21 June 1764, 1. 76 Ibid. 77 Quebec Herald, 15 December 1788, 1. 78 Quebec Herald, 23 November 1789, 4. 79 Quebec Herald, 22 November 1790, 8.

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view a Caldwell, in whom the character of Philosopher, a Statesman, and more particularly that of a Warrior is combined.”80 The three authors of the letter lambasted Caldwell for his arrogance and pomposity, citing in particular his excessive display in calling them to a special tribunal to explain why they had not attended the recent militia muster. The merchants were not the only colonists aggrieved by what they thought were heavy-handed actions, as the Herald also reported that elsewhere in the province three young men had been imprisoned over their failure to attend muster.81 As it was a time of peace, the relevance of the Militia Act and Caldwell’s support for its severe punishments for non-­ compliance caused a great deal of public debate.82 Walter, Jones, and Irwin concluded their admonishment of Caldwell by using a familiar metaphor to describe the arrogance and pointlessness of the colonel’s actions: And as all Characters of such striking Genius shou’d have Histo­riographers to record their Actions, they pledge themselves to hand down to Posterity from Time to Time, a faithful state of all his Errant Proceedings, and shou’d he, Don Quixote like, find occasion for a Squire to attend him in the future, worthy Sancho’s Good Qualities shall not be forgot.83

Miguel de Cervantes’s tale of vanity and futility is one that resonated throughout the British Atlantic.84 The authors appealed to this literary touchstone, emphasizing their erudition and appealing to that of their fellow readers. Indeed, the entire letter required awareness of British history and popular literary forms, literacies that both the authors and the printer clearly believed that the readers possessed. In response, Caldwell charged not only the authors of the letter but also the publisher of the Quebec Herald with libel. With a grand jury date set in November, Moore wasted no time in soliciting public support for his cause, publishing several articles on what he framed as the very English, or British liberty of the press. One such article was entitled “The Proper Liberty of the Press.” Originally found in the London publication The World and signed “An Englishman,” it was an appeal to a British 80 Quebec Herald, 23 August 1790, 317. 81 Quebec Herald, 23 August 1790, 308 and Quebec Herald, 10 February 1791, 95. 82 For examples of both sides of the debate see Hater of Despotism on the “absurdity” of the Militia Bill, Quebec Herald, 26 August 1790, 317; Billy Birch criticizing Hater of Despotism, Quebec Herald, 9 September 1790, 333; The Private on the Militia Bill “delinquents,” Quebec Herald, 7 January 1791, 53. 83 Quebec Herald, 23 August 1790, 317. 84 For more on the imitative practices of Quixotic texts see Staves, “Don Quixote in Eighteenth-century Britain”; Bannet, “Quixotes, Imitations, and Transatlantic Genres.”

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grand jury presiding over a case of libel. Underscoring both British legal and cultural precedents, the author pleaded that the members of the grand jury stand up against what he saw as intimidation by “wealth” and agents of legislative and judicial “power.”85 In this and other articles published in the Quebec Herald, an appeal to a qualitative “Britishness” was again employed. Moore appealed directly to the reading public to take a stand on what behaviour was proper for the colony. It was a choice between what he framed in his newspaper as a deplorable parochial tyranny or a more universal and desirable British liberty. On 10 November 1790, the Quebec grand jury met and exonerated Moore and the letter’s authors. Moore, in his characteristic style, took the opportunity to rebuke Caldwell, writing, “the present Grand Jury have boldly stood up for the maxim held out in a favourite old song, that ‘Britons never shall be slaves,’ – which the prosecutor Colonel Caldwell seems to have a wish to make them, as would appear by his attack upon the Printer of a free paper.”86 Not satisfied with his initial reproach of Caldwell, Moore advertised in the next issue of the Herald that he was publishing a pamphlet that detailed the arguments he had given to the grand jury with a special appendix and “A Treatise on the Freedom of the Press.”87 Moore’s approach proved to be as effective as it was simple. In the first instance, he denounced Caldwell’s behaviour and character as being un-British. Concurrently, he curried favour with the reading public by underscoring the public worth of his own actions, both in exposing Caldwell’s poor character and by upholding what he believed to be that most British of rights, the liberty of the press. Moore’s libel victory provides a compelling example of how a printer could effectively use public perceptions of the inherent Britishness of the press to his advantage in the colonial environment. It was at the height of the libel controversy when Moore argued that “A Newspaper exactly resembles a stage coach – in which the Printer may be said to be the driver.” While it was no random coincidence that in a time of personal attack Moore would appeal to an English paper, promoting the importance of the press and the advancement of English liberties, it was also a greater philosophy that we can observe dating back to the earliest days of the press in both Halifax and Quebec City. For all their differences, printers in the late eighteenth-century capitals were united by their geopolitical situation on the periphery of the British Empire, by the financial trials of the printing profession, and by a shared conviction 85 Quebec Herald, 27 September 1790, 359. 86 Quebec Herald, 15 November 1790, 412. 87 Quebec Herald, 18 November 1790, 409.

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of print’s ability to engage, entertain, and inform readers. This passion can be observed from the earliest print productions, and it grew stronger as the population of the regions increased after the American Revolution. Like other Enlightenment-era printers in the British Atlantic, the printers of Halifax and Quebec City became purveyors of information to the public and promoted themselves as colonial improvers. The need to balance propriety and liberty, however, was never far from the minds of these printers who fashioned their newspapers as particular vehicles of British intelligence and literature. Printers had to skilfully highlight news and information while at the same time either downplay political events and ideas, or express them in an overtly patriotic or constructive manner. Neither pallid nor neutral, printers directed a colourful and animated discourse that privileged reason over superstition, advocated liberty with propriety, extolled democracy under British monarchy, and encouraged social criticism without revolution. In doing so, the information that they communicated was consumed by a literate and curious colonial print community. As we shall see in the following chapters, some members of this community would utilize these messages and the print forum itself in the formation of a colonial elite on the periphery of the British Empire. It was an elite whose exclusivity was framed by the literary content and patriotic values exhibited in the press while, at the same time, an elite who understood and acted upon the messages of charity and individual and societal betterment that print also conveyed.

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2 “Send me a Ton of Newspapers”: Readers and Reading Habits of the Colonial Print Community Over several weeks in the spring of 1773 readers of the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle were greeted by an unusually large advertisement that took up an inordinate two full columns of the newspaper. While it was common to see a variety of commodities advertised in the pages of colonial newspapers, this advertisement was unique both in its size and subject matter. Unlike the cloth, sugar, cast iron ware, furniture, and other items for sale in the pages of the newspaper, readers were asked to purchase an item that had yet to be produced: a collection of poems. “proposals for printing by subscription a Volume of poems,” the announcement read, “Dedicated by Permission to the Rt. Hon. the Countess of Huntington, Written By Phyllis, A Negro Servant of Mr. Wheatley, of Boston in New England.”1 Phyllis Wheatley’s (1753–1784) literary legacy is the subject of continuing scholarly debate. She has been lauded by some as America’s first Black poet and a seminal feminist writer and denounced by others as ineffective in changing public opinion towards the plight of enslaved Blacks.2 Regardless of modern interpretations of Wheatley’s work, the transatlantic call for subscriptions was evidently successful, as her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published later in 1773. Indeed, her writings captivated the entire Anglo-American world including the colonial print community in Halifax. Yet, who exactly were members of this colonial print community? Who were these people in Halifax, and their likeminded colonists in  Quebec City who consumed English-language print and would on

1 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 11 May 1773, 3. 2 For examples see Clarke, “The Origin and Growth of Afro-American Literature”; Rawley, “The World of Phyllis Wheatley”; Jensen, “Boston’s Poetic Slave”; Scruggs, “Phyllis Wheatley and the Poetical Legacy of Eighteenth-century England”; Slauter, “Neoclassical Culture in a Society with Slaves”; Waldstreicher, “The Wheatleyan Movement.”

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occasion contribute their own opinion through the local press? And what literary tastes did these individuals possess? Local newspaper advertisements, personal letters, and journals offer some light on the tastes as well as the identity of some readers that would have lived in eighteenth-century British Halifax and Quebec City. Compared to the urban centres such as Philadelphia, Boston, New York, or London, readership of the domestic newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City was relatively small. Each community had a few hundred identifiable readers with another hundred spread across the expanse of the colony. However, it would be wrong to equate smaller readership with reduced influence or importance. Indeed, comparisons can be made again to the provincial press in Great Britain and Ireland during the same time. As historian Robert Munter observed: “one of the most striking features of early Irish newspaper history is the fact that they were circulated in such extremely limited numbers; judged by modern standards both the individual and combined output of the press was ridiculously small.”3 Press historian G.A. Cranfield also noticed low circulation numbers for the provincial newspapers in England. As Cranfield argues, low circulation did not necessarily mean a reduced influence of the press. Indeed, in the provincial towns the London papers were also distributed and each paper, he observed, served a specific purpose.4 More recently, Hannah Barker has built upon the interpretations of historians such as Cranfield and Arthur Aspinall5 arguing that the provincial press, though small, clearly was not amateurish in its production nor its readers unsophisticated in nature.6 In many ways, as we shall see, the press of Halifax and Quebec City resembled the provincial press of Great Britain and Ireland, playing an important role for a relatively small, eclectic, and dynamic group of local readers. The colonial print community was comprised by the traditional political and religious elite as well as a mix of literate merchants, sea captains, navy and medical officers and soldiers, civil servants, clerks, lawyers, medical practitioners, prosperous farmers, and tradesmen. Even with large gaps in the historical record, it is much easier to determine what types of people were reading and what print was available to them. What is more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to attain is a sense of the number of those readers who became print contributors. A rough idea can be gained

3 Munter, The History of the Irish Newspaper, 67. 4 Cranfield, The Development of the Provincial Newspaper, 117–19. 5 Aspinall, Politics and the Press, c. 1780–1850. 6 Barker, “Catering for Provisional Tastes: Newspapers, Readership and Profit in Late Eighteenth-century England,” 42–61.

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from extant subscription lists, print advertisements, and personal correspondence. Like the printers, these people shared a belief in the importance of the press to influence behaviour in society. Reading for many of these individuals, however, was not a passive experience. Whether they were conscious of it or not, the press informed their everyday thoughts and actions and, in turn, some even used the press to influence the actions of others. The print community – by no means a homogeneous or coherent group – can nonetheless be considered a community of colonial readers and print contributors sharing a belief in the inherent value of print. Some members, too, used the press in an attempt to form a more coherent and British-oriented elite in colonial society. Eighteenth-century subscription lists for domestically produced print are particularly important sources that, if interpreted carefully, can improve our understanding of the boundaries of the print community in British North America. These lists offer illuminating information on the identity of domestic readers, though their usefulness is tempered by their rarity and their incomplete nature. The most detailed records of this nature pertain to the operations of the Quebec Gazette. In 1768, four years after the establishment of the Gazette, it is recorded that the newspaper had almost 300 subscribers.7 For the years 1782 to 1785, the subscription rate averaged around 3268 and by the end of the century almost 520 subscribers were listed.9 The subscription books show that approximately sixty per cent of the readers of the Quebec Gazette lived in Quebec City, with the majority of the readers in the remaining forty percent living in Montreal, or on the “roads to” Montreal and Halifax. The names on the subscription lists show that the colonial readers, although a relatively small segment of the entire colonial population, were nonetheless a stratified and influential group. Perhaps the most eclectic community of readers could be found in Quebec. The subscription books of the Quebec Gazette, reflecting the mid-century upheaval of imperial powers, showed a mix of old French gentry and new British arrivals. It was a spectrum of readers that included high-ranking government officials, clergy, prominent merchants and seigneurs, military officers, lesser merchants, clerks, and tradesmen. A similar cross-section of subscribers supported the Quebec Magazine (1791–1794), also published 7 lac, Neilson Family Collection, MG24–B1, Volume 46, File 3, Subscription Book, 1768–1769, Reel C–15611. The names of individuals that dropped subscriptions are also indicated here under the term “had been subscribers.” 8 lac, Neilson Family Collection, MG24–B1, Volume 46, File 5, Subscription Book, 1784–1785, Reel C–15611. 9 lac, Neilson Family Collection, MG24–B1, Volume 46, File 12, 1795–1803, Reel C–15611.

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by the Gazette printing office. These 324 subscribers included Prince Edward, members of the prominent Baby and De Saliberry families, Montreal merchants Cuthbert Grant and James McGill, prominent Quebec City merchants Lester, Lynd, Bell, and Macnider, British colonels Nairne, Simcoe, and Gordon, as well as lesser merchants such as Henry Juncken and his friend and schoolmaster John Jones.10 No similar subscriptions records remain concerning the early printers of Halifax until the publication of the Nova-Scotia Magazine in 1789 that listed in its pages the names of its 240 subscribers. Styled as a publication “beneficial to the merchant, the farmer, the mechanic, and to every description of man,”11 the magazine’s list of subscribers provides a rare glimpse of the identity of the literate public. While not as eclectic a group as that found in Quebec City, the readers of the Nova-Scotia Magazine were nonetheless a diverse mix of newly arrived American loyalists as well as longstanding British, New England, and German inhabitants who had been instrumental in the settlement of the town. Included were Lieutenant-Governor John Parr and his executive council, members of the Legislative Assembly, Rev. Dr Charles Inglis, Bishop of Nova Scotia, influential medical doctors W.J. Allmon and Duncan Clark, noted merchants Alex Brymer, Charles Geddes, and Benjamin Salter, the Rev. Dr Andrew Brown, army subaltern and diarist William Dyott, and the deputy postmaster Joseph Peters.12 In addition to this colonial who’s who, the list of magazine subscribers also bore the names and would occasionally detail the professions of dozens of farmers, sailors, lesser merchants, bureaucrats, and military officers and clerks. As illuminating as the extant subscription lists are, they offer an incomplete picture of the reading public. Domestically produced print was also distributed and consumed outside the home. Printers’ offices, merchants’ shops, coffeehouses, and libraries also offered newspapers and other publications for reading. The Quebec Library, for example, is found on the Quebec Gazette’s list of subscribers that received newspapers “gratis.”13 Similarly, Quebec City merchant Henry Juncken writes of ­going to the coffee shop to read a newspaper,14 having newspapers 10 lac, Neilson Family Collection, MG24–B1, Volume 46, File 8, Subscription Book, Quebec Magazine, 1794, Reel C–15611. 11 Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 1 (1790): 4. 12 Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, nos 1–2 (1789): iii–vi, 160; Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, no. 1 (1789): v. 13 lac, Neilson Family Collection, MG24–B1, Volume 46, File 12, Subscriptions Books, 1795–1803, Reel C–15611. 14 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 1788–1789, 18 November 1788, 73.

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delivered by friends,15 or visiting the printer directly to purchase publications without subscribing.16 One prominent example of this is postmaster Joseph Peters who wrote that he avoided subscribing to publications as he could read them during the course of his work for free.17 Furthermore, subscription lists only denoted the head of the household or primary subscriber, and these were predominately male. With the exception of the odd widow, subscription lists omitted wives, children (both male and female), and other relatives who would have been part of a greater circle of literacy. While women are rarely listed as subscribers, it is clear that printers in Halifax and Quebec City saw them as a potential audience for their productions. In 1764, the Quebec Gazette presented itself as a forum where “the youth of both sexes will be improved and persons of all ranks agreeably and usefully entertained.”18 Publishers of almanacs in the capitals included articles that they believed would be of specific interest to women, ranging from folk remedies to treat sick children to moral essays on topics such as gossip and tattling.19 In some cases, a page or two would be reserved especially “For the Ladies.”20 Later in 1791, when William Moore, the agent of the NovaScotia Magazine in Quebec, placed an advertisement in his paper for subscribers, he entreated all “Gentlemen and Ladies wishing to be furnished with that useful and elegant production” to contact him for copies, as the magazine “is universally allowed to be equal or superior to many Magazines now in circulation.”21 To address male and female readers equally, printers must have considered female readers an important, lucrative and – as the length of time between these examples illustrate – long-standing part of the greater print readership. Indeed, printers not only anticipated that women would read their newspapers and magazines, they also printed material designed spe­ cifically for them. Newspapers in the capitals advertised women-only ­publications, such as “The Lady’s Memorandum Book; or Daily Pocket 15 Ibid., 23 April 1789, 296. 16 Ibid., 22 December 1788, 113. 17 Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston (mhs), Ms. N–693 MS Meteorological observations (by Joseph Peters) 1793–1798, Letter from Joseph Peters to Jeremy Belknap, 11 February 1796. 18 Quebec Gazette, 21 June 1764, 1. 19 See “On the Imprudence of Tatling,” Nova-Scotia Calendar or Almanack, 1774; “A Cure for Convulsions in children,” Nova-Scotia Calendar or Almanack, 1773. 20 See Nathaniel Ames, An Astronomical Diary, or Almanac for the Year of our Lord Christ , 1762 (Boston: John Draper, 1761). Before a local almanac was published in Halifax, Ames’s Almanac was imported from Boston and sold for the use of Haligonians. See “Ames Almanacs for the Year 1754,” Halifax Gazette, 19 January 1754, 2. 21 Quebec Herald, 23 May 1791, 8.

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Journal”22 or the “Lady’s Diary, and Pocket Almanac,” exclusively for the use and approbation of the “female world” by providing “useful information” on a variety of subjects, including “several useful receipts in cookery … a Lady’s gardening calendar,” poetry, songs, and “enigmatical questions.”23 Colonial women also gave publications as gifts, often to other women as a means to augment their education. An example of this practice is witnessed by the annotation found on the front cover of one of the editions of the Nova-Scotia Magazine used in this study, which reads “The Gift of Katherine Gould to her affectionate Niece Catherine Johnstone.”24 Although their names were not on any of the subscription lists, Katherine Gould and Catherine Johnstone attest to the much wider circles of reading that existed, of which little more than anecdotal evidence remains. Children and youth were also consumers of the printed word, predominately purchased for them. Booksellers and stationers never missed an opportunity to remind parents that materials for younger readers were readily available. Halifax bookseller Richard Kidston, for example, advertised “a variety of Histories, Jest Stories, Primers, Testaments, Catechisms and Spelling Books for Children.”25 An advertisement in the Quebec Gazette told of the availability of the New England Primer for the cost of nine pence, as well as, Dilworth’s Spelling-Book, “designed for the Use of Schools in Great Britain, and in several English colonies and Plantations abroad.”26 Such advertisements are indicative of yet others found in the Quebec and Halifax newspapers, all highlighting the availability of publications for the amusement and education of young readers.27 The clear mention of children’s publications attests to a perception that there were marketable numbers of young readers in the colonies and a need for suitable reading material. As garrison towns both Halifax and Quebec City boasted contingents of British Army and Royal Navy soldiers and sailors. Letters from officers were not rare in colonial newspapers ranging from the observations of

22 This publication, touted as being written “by a Lady,” was imported from London by Robert Fletcher. See Nova-Scotia Gazette, 8 June 1769, 4. 23 Quebec Herald, 12 October 1789, 404. 24 Inside cover, Nova-Scotia Magazine, volume iv (Halifax: John Howe, 1791), from the microfilm copy, lac. 25 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 30 June 1789, 1. 26 Quebec Gazette, 6 December 1764, 3. 27 For other examples see “For sale at this office, Children’s Alphabets,” Quebec Herald, 17 March 1791, 133; “New Books for Sale,” Quebec Herald, 24 November 1788, 8; “New Books on Sale at Robert Fletcher’s,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 8 February 1785, 4; “Books on Sale at Robert Fletcher’s,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 13 April 1771.

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lesser-known individuals to the missives of Military chaplain Rev. John Brooke, an occasional correspondent to the Quebec Gazette and the husband of the early Canadian novelist Frances Brooke.28 While it is unsurprising that British officers, like colonial lawyers, were literate, anecdotal evidence attests that at least some of the regular soldiery was also able to read. Such is the case of the newspaper report of the recovery of the body of John Dutton, a soldier in the 29th Regiment of Foot. Found drowned in Bedford Basin, Dutton was reportedly wearing a knapsack, “containing 2 Books and some other Trifles.”29 The fact that he had such reading materials with him was not reported as being out of the ordinary, to the contrary it corroborated previous reports that the soldier had fallen through the ice while on leave.30 Non-commissioned officers, in particular, were expected to keep muster and orderly books and thus could read and write. Sergeant James Thompson Sr, overseer of works at Quebec, for example, kept a detailed diary initially “with a View to Justify his own Conduct, in case he should be called upon to answer for it or perhaps Errors committed through the mismanagement of such as were or might thereafter be employed in that Service.”31 Thompson’s friend and fellow soldier in the 78th Regiment, John Fraser, was not only literate but also went on to teach school in Quebec City and later educated Thompson’s sons.32 Estimates suggest that one third of the eighteenth-century army had some literacy skills (a number that rose to eighty per cent by the mid-nineteenth century).33 It is, therefore, not inconceivable that similar rates of literacy also existed within the ranks of the British Army in Halifax and Quebec City. Some enslaved and free Blacks as well as First Nations peoples could also read and write in the environs of Halifax and Quebec City. These individuals were normally community leaders, or affiliated with larger organizations such as the Protestant and Roman Catholic Church or the 28 For a letter on steps taken to educate and ameliorate the condition of the poor see Quebec Gazette, 13 September 1764, 4. For a letter on the importance of smallpox inoculations see Quebec Gazette, 9 April 1765. 29 Nova-Scotia Gazette, 16 June 1768, 3. 30 “A few Days since John Dutton, a Soldier of the 29th Regiment, who attempted to cross the Bason near Fort Sackville, the Ice broke in with him, and he was instantly drown’d, notwithstanding all possible means to save him.” Nova-Scotia Gazette, 11 February 1768, 3. 31 banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 1, Journal, James Thompson Sr, 1779–81. 32 O’Gallagher, “Fraser, John,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume iv, www. biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013); banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 4, “James Thompson, Sr. Reminiscences Recorded by his Son, James Thompson, Jr.” 33 Smith, “Educating the Soldier in the Nineteenth Century,” 114.

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Royal Navy and British Army.34 The British Army, in particular, used the press to recruit Black readers. For example, in 1791 Lieutenant Francis Miller (living at Sutherland’s Coffee House in Halifax) placed an advertisement in the Royal Gazette to “all able bodied free Negro men who are willing to serve His Majesty in the Black Carolina Corps.”35 However, such direct messages to literate members of the Black community were rare. Print often reinforced the marginalization of Blacks and First Nations peoples. Indeed, colonial print occasionally talked about enslaved and free Blacks as First Nation peoples, but rarely to them. For example, newspaper advertisements telling of runaway slaves would occasionally observe literacy skills such as, “[he] speaks and reads English tolerably well.”36 Yet, these advertisements telling of Black literacy were not intended for Black readers. By the late 1780s, the abolition of slavery and the respect for aboriginal ways became commonplace topics. Yet, in spite of the change in attitude, the intended purpose of such articles was still firmly for the divertissement of non-Black and non-aboriginal readers. Even the evidence that exists of Black readership, for example, tends to favour messages that underscore difference, rather than inclusivity. The mainly white participants in the colonial print community may have be voracious readers of Phyllis Wheatley, but they hardly expected or encouraged a home-grown Black poet, or philosopher. Another group that was excluded from the colonial print community in both Halifax and Quebec City were the illiterate, or those with limited English language skills. Of course, these individuals were not immune to the attitudes and behaviour of the print community – and indeed the markets, churches, theatres, and coffeehouses of Quebec City and Halifax all provided nodal points where the printed word could be read aloud, or print knowledge shared through conversation. Nonetheless, like Black and First Nations peoples illiterate colonists of European origins were marginalized by the colonial print community. Members of the English-speaking colonial print community at best pitied the illiterate, and at worst held them in contempt for not possessing the requisite skills to master print language. Illiteracy, in this view, led to ignorance – a state where one was left unfortunately untouched by the perceived refinement 34 For examples see the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the biographies of Baptist minister David George (1743?–1810), Methodist preachers Boston King (1760?–1802) and Moses Wilkinson, preacher and Royal Navy veteran John Marrant (1755–1791), British Army sergeant Thomas Peters (1738?–1792), War of 1812 veteran Captain Richard Pierpoint (1744?–1838), the Rev. Colonel Stephen Blucke (1752?–1792), schoolmaster at Birchtown, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 35 Royal Gazette (Halifax), 1 November 1791, 4. 36 Cited in Neilson, “Slavery in Old Canada.”

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of the printed word. For example Governor James Murray, who held a great deal of sympathy for French Canadians, nonetheless believed that the majority of the population were ignorant due to the previous French administration’s failure to promote literacy. “The fourth order is that of the Peasantry, these are a Strong, Healthy Race, Plain in their Dress,” Murray observed in his report on the state of the colony after the establishment of British rule in 1762. He continued that they were: “virtuous in their Morals, and temperate in their living; They are in General extremely Ignorant, for the Former Government would never suffer a Printing Press in the Country, few can Read or Write, and all received implicitly for truth, the many arrant Falsehoods and atrocious Lies industriously handed among them by those who were in power.”37 More upsetting for some members of the colonial print community were those inhabitants who purposefully chose a perceived state of ignorance and did not push themselves to read. Frances Brooke’s epistolary novel The History of Emily Montague offers evidence that this opinion extended to include the upper-class French-Canadian women of the province. In a particularly catty observation, Brooke’s character Arabella Fermor writes of the French-Canadian ladies of the colony that: they seem born without the smallest portion of curiosity, or any idea of the pleasures of the imagination, or indeed any idea of the pleasures of the imagination, or indeed any pleasure but that of being admired … the men are very ready to excuse their want of knowledge.   There are two ladies in the province, I am told, who read; but both of them are above fifty, and they are regarded as prodigies of erudition.38

This perspective, however, was not reserved merely from the Frenchspeaking inhabitants of the colony. Two decades later, Henry Juncken, a Quebec City merchant of German extraction, railed privately on the character of a man to whom he had just paid a visit. “I was much mistaken with respect to this Mr. Shindler,” Juncken wrote in his journal, “for I expected he was a man of Learning by report, whereas I found him to be but very Ignorant and illiterate.”39 Increasingly over the eighteenth century, success and literacy become synonymous in Halifax and Quebec City. Those lacking the appropriate language skills were sometimes ­pitied, 37 lac, MG8–E1, “Report on the Government of Quebec and Dependencies thereof 1762,” 75–6. 38 Brooke, The History of Emily Montague, 49. 39 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 1788–1789, 199.

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sometimes mocked, yet almost universally seen as inferior to the those who were part of the print community. The domestic press, and particularly the advertisements placed in local newspapers, can be invaluable in understanding the reading tastes of the print community (or at least what printers and booksellers believed those tastes to be).40 These advertisements attest that the majority of works imported into the colonial capitals were produced by British presses, written by British authors, or otherwise reflected contemporary British tastes. For example, in 1776, books that could be purchased at Anthony Henry’s Halifax printing office included reference works such as a two-volume set of “Johnson’s English Dictionary,” the newest novels such as a nine-volume set of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, classic British serials such as The Spectator and The Rambler, classically inspired work such as a collection of Alexander Pope’s writings, or the latest works of biography such as Thomas Mortimer’s British Plutarch.41 The situation was no different in Quebec City, where the printing office of the Quebec Gazette carried on a lively book and stationary trade,42 as did the office of William Moore’s Quebec Herald, which became a self-proclaimed hub for “New and Old Books. Bought, sold and exchanged.”43 “Ladies and Gentlemen,” commenced one of Moore’s announcements soliciting the print-buying public, “who wish for Magazines, Novels, new Plays, Poems, or Books of any particular sort from England, by the early vessels in Spring, signifying their wants at the Herald Printing-Office previous to the first Monday in January, they will be accommodated to their satisfaction, on very moderate profit.”44 Printers ensured that a variety of current and traditional British works were available to a public that eagerly awaited their arrival. In addition to the printers’ own commercial endeavours, general merchants and booksellers also advertised the sale of print in the colonial newspapers. While this occurred in both Quebec City and Halifax, booksellers’ advertisements tended to be more prevalent in the Nova Scotian

40 This is a technique that print scholar Fiona Black uses. See Black, “Newspapers as Primary Sources in Canadian-Scottish Book Trade History.” 41 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 17 September 1776, 3. 42 “Brown / Neilson Shop Records,” in Early Canadian Printing, eds Fleming and Alston. Throughout the Gazette’s pages can be found as well advertisements for stationary and books. 43 Quebec Herald, 7 September 1789, 362. For the breadth of titles that Moore sold in Quebec also see Quebec Herald: 24 November 1788, 8; 15 June 1789, 259; 28 September 1789, 389; and 3 December 1789, 13. 44 Ibid., 15 December 1788, 3.

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capital. Merchants such as Richard Kidston,45 sometime-publisher Robert Fletcher,46 Francis Boyd,47 and New York bookseller James Rivington48 piqued the interest of Nova Scotian readers with advertisements heralding the arrival of new and well-loved books. The booksellers, like the printers, offered a wide selection of books. In a typical instance, Rivington advertised a “curious Collection of Books, in History, Divinity, Law, Physic, Mathematics, Classics, Architecture, Navigation; a Variety of the best Novels and Books of Entertainment, with a good Assortment of Greek, Latin & English School Books, a great Choice of low prized Histories, Books of Piety, Bibles, Testaments … Maps of Nova Scotia, [and] Charts of Halifax.”49 Also like the printers, the booksellers highlighted works of British authors and publishers in their advertisements, often at British prices. Robert Fletcher, for example, would entice prospective buyers by selling books, “at the London Prices for Cash.”50 A typical catalogue such as he published in 1771 would be solidly British, including works like Catherine Macaulay’s History of England, Tobias Smollett’s History, Alexander Pope’s works, Milton’s and William Congreve’s works, the Spectator, the Tatler, Rev. John Spotswood’s History of the Church and State of Scotland, “Lock [sic] on Understanding,” “Mother Goose’s Tales,” and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.51 Print sellers evidently anticipated a

45 Kidston was a Scottish bookseller who appears to have moved to Halifax after the American Revolution. He was a member of the North British society, a part of their special committee on charity, and is on record as donating to various other charities including giving £2 for the building of a new Episcopal church in Lunenburg in 1795. See nsarm, MG 20, Volume 231, North British Society, Treasurer’s Records, Proceedings of the North British Society and nsarm, MG 1, Volume 797 a–d (c)#1, Rev. John Seccombe Journal. 46 Robert Fletcher was an importer who specialized in books and briefly took over the publication of the Halifax Gazette after Anthony Henry was removed. His advertisements for a wide variety of books, music, and publications span three decades in various Nova Scotia newspapers. Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 662. 47 Boyd advertised for sale “Bibles, Testaments, Psalm-Books, Spelling-Books, Primers, Writing Paper and Quills, and sundry other Articles.” He, along with Robert Fletcher, also sold the Nova-Scotia Calendar. See A. Lilius, The Nova-Scotia Calendar or An Almanack For the Christian Æra, 1773 (Halifax: Anthony Henry, 1772). 48 George L. Parker writes that Rivington was Halifax’s first bookseller, being “of the well-known family of London booksellers,” later moving to New England and then to New York. See Parker, The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada, 13. 49 Halifax Gazette, 14 May 1761, 2. 50 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 13 April 1771. 51 Ibid. For other advertisements from Fletcher see Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 13 June 1769, 191, and 7 August 1770, 255; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle (Halifax), 22 June 1773, 3; 23 February 1779, 4; 5 October 1779, 3; and 8 February 1785, 4.

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demand, not only for popular British publications, but also for fair British prices of such material. Whether read in a coffeehouse, the work place, on the street, or by the domestic fireside, the printed word helped to minimize the perceived distance between Great Britain and the literate inhabitants of Halifax and Quebec City.52 As we have seen, Brown and Gilmore’s 1763 prospectus for the Quebec Gazette underscored this perception, observing that through print “we can sit at Home and acquaint ourselves with what is done in all the distant Parts of the World, and find what our Fathers did long ago, in the first Ages of Mankind: By this Means a Briton holds Correspondence with his Friend in America or Japan, and manages all his Business.”53 For the literate “Britons” of Halifax and Quebec City, print brought together reports of eras long past with current events, pairing what was often touted as the “freshest intelligence” from across the world with the stalwart works of past authors and popular histories. By bringing together ideas from the furthest reaches of known geography and chronology, the reader was provided with a foil to the colonial everyday and grist for thought and discussion. The purchasing of British works from colonial booksellers was one means by which members of the colonial print community in Halifax and Quebec City could stay connected with the mother country. Sending print through the mail, or by packet ship, or having it delivered in person were other popular means for readers and members of the colonial print community alike to acquire or share cherished works while at the same time maintaining social networks. Particularly in the years following the American Revolution, friends and families divided by civil war continued relationships via the printed word. Quebec City’s Thomas Aston Coffin,54 writing to his mother in Boston, would frequently ask for publications to be forwarded to him by mail, or, as in this instance, by travellers planning to visit: “By the return of Mr. Sheaffe, I wish you would send me a Boston Register for this year I wish much to know who are selectmen, Hog-reeves &c. – any other novel publication that you think worth reading I wish thank you for, not forgetting a catalogue &c of the College of Harvard, for I suppose they keep the anniversary as in 52 This phenomenon has been previously observed; see in particular, Shields, “Eighteenth-century Literary Culture,” in A History of the Book in America, eds Amory, Hugh, and Hall, 436. 53 University of Toronto, Fisher Library, Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides Collection, “Quebeck: to the public = au public,” Broadside printed in the printing office of William Dunlap 1763, brc f 0072. 54 Caya, “Coffin, Thomas Aston,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume v, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013).

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the days of yore.”55 Coffin was not alone in his request; the correspondence of colonists is peppered with words of anticipation or appreciation for works sent through the mail. The loyalist Chaplain of the Garrison at Halifax, Rev. Dr Mather Byles Jr, for example, frequently exchanged publications (particularly poems) and detailed his literary habits with his sisters in Boston. His correspondence also reveals that he received books through the post. “I have also been much entertained,” Byles wrote his father and sisters in 1783, “by a new Production entitled the History of Connecticut,56 which was sent me from England, & in which I have the Honor to be mentioned with particular Respect.”57 Other Haligonians, such as Governor Sir John Wentworth58 and the Rev. Dr Andrew Brown,59 were also connected with transatlantic networks of print sharing and distribution. Like Coffin and Byles, they also enjoyed a particular connection to Boston that can be witnessed in their vibrant exchanges with the Rev. Dr Jeremy Belknap.60 Before departing for New Brunswick in 1784, Halifax’s Edward Winslow begged his friend Ward Chipman to “Send me a ton of Newspapers, of pamphlets, Caricatures  – anything.”61 Similarly, in 1787 Governor Wentworth thanked a Boston friend, “for the News papers, you have been kind[?] to send us, & amu­ sements & Intelligence they have afforded us and our Friends.”62

55 mhs, Ms. N–1005, Thomas Aston Coffin Papers, Letter: Thomas Aston Coffin (Quebec) to Mrs Coffin (Boston) 13 May 1788, Reel P–758. 56 This work may have been Samuel Peters’s history of Connecticut that was published in 1781. Byles, who originally lived in New London, Connecticut, is mentioned on pages 315 to 316. See Peters, A General History of Connecticut. 57 mhs, Byles Family Papers, Letter: Mather Byles Jr (Halifax) to Mather Byles Sr, Mary and Katherine Byles (Boston) [10 June 1783]. 58 The Harvard-educated Wentworth (1737–1820) was originally the governor of New Hampshire, surveyor of Crown Lands in Nova Scotia (as a loyalist exile), later lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. See Fingard, “Sir John Wentworth,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume v, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 59 Brown (1763–1834) was in charge of the congregation of St Mathew’s, Halifax from 1787 to 1795. He was involved himself in the city’s charitable and social affairs and was a scholar who attempted to write a history of Nova Scotia. Returning to Scotland, he replaced Hugh Blair as the Chair of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh. See Shepperson, “Brown, Andrew,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 6, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 60 For examples see Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society: Belknap Papers, volume 1 (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1879), 547, 562, 563, 571, 572, 577, 585, 586. I would like to thank archaeologist and historian Sara Beanlands of Halifax for providing me with this source. Also see Beanlands, “The Rev. Dr. Andrew Brown.” 61 lac, MG23–D1 Ward Chipman (Senior and Junior) fonds, Reel C–1180, 1320. 62 nsarm, MG 1, Volume 940, Sir John Wentworth Papers, Bound Letter Book, Letter: P[?] Norton, Boston to J. Wentworth, Halifax 30 June 1787.

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Such disparate sources offer a unified message that print was both valued greatly and an important medium of sociability for the colonial print community. The importance of print to these members of the colonial print community is further demonstrated by the lengths they went to in moving personal libraries. “When I was first on the move to Halifax,” the Rev. Dr Andrew Brown wrote in 1793, “Dr. Robertson, who had directed me in the choice of my little library, desired me to get a bookseller to pack it; adding I have always done so, for many valuable volumes have come to me many hundred miles, and there is nothing so necessary as to be attentive to such treasure, which they who have the taste to chuse have also the taste to value.”63 William Smith, another acquaintance of the auspicious Scottish historian William Robertson (1721–1793),64 underscored the importance of moving his library in its entirety and without damage. “I must have a Study large enough for my Library; concerning which last I am not a little anxious,” he confided to his wife Janet as they prepared to move from New York to Quebec City in the wake of the American Revolution: for unless a Chance Ship comes to us from ny, I fear the Boxes must be reduced to a more portable Size, & so covered as to turn Rain, to prevent their being ruined in the open Passage by Land & Water thro’ the Lakes. I beg this may be a prime Object of your Attention. It is possible that some British Bottom may leave your Port for this Place in the Spring. I Must have them as speedily as possible cost what they may.65

63 Belknap Papers, volume 1, 550, Letter, Andrew Brown, Halifax to Jeremy Belknap, Boston, 14 June 1793. 64 Leslie Upton observes that: “In the preface to his History of America (London, 1777), Robertson acknowledged, ‘from William Smith, Esq., the ingenious historian of New York, I have received some useful information.’” In Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume 1, 12. A letter to a Haligonian from a “Gentlemen in London” published in 1772 shows that Robertson is beginning a great history of America but, “due to the variety of occupations in which the Doctor is engaged, give reason to fear, that it will not be delivered to the world for several years to come.” The popularity of Robertson was such that, “The bookseller purchased of Dr. Robertson the Copy of his history for 600 l. And his history of Charles V. was sold for no less than 4500 1. Sterling. – a price it is then never before paid for any book in the country. The Bookseller made an immense Sum by the sale of the Books.” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 10 November 1772, 3. 65 Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume 1, 195, Letter, William Smith, Quebec City to Janet Smith, New York City, 28 October 1786.

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The concern and effort taken over the transport of libraries also gives a clear indication of the value that was placed upon printed materials by the colonial elite in eighteenth-century Nova Scotia and Quebec. Another testament to the value of printed materials could be found in the great efforts taken to recover them when they had gone “lost.” “The person who has borrow’d the fifth Volum [sic] of the History and Proceedings of the House of Lords, from the Restoration in 1660, to the Present Time,” read an advertisement published repeatedly in the Halifax Gazette during 1754, “is desired to return it … as the Want of it breaks a Sett.”66 “Whereas Mr. Turner D.P.M. of Halifax, has lent several books, which have been forgotten to be returned” another advertisement taken out in the Nova-Scotia Gazette proclaimed in 1780, “And his name is upon the Title Page of them all: this is to desire that they be sent to Him at Halifax.”67 The list of over ten borrowed books contained several Frenchlanguage titles, including a copy of Rousseau’s Lettre à D’Alembert on theatre.68 In Quebec City, similar advertisements were also common, such as when a reader of the Quebec Herald asked for the return of the “4th volume of Marmontel’s moral tales – octavo” lent in the summer to “some gentlemen or a lady of this city,”69 or when an advertisement was placed in the Quebec Gazette concerning a quintessentially Scottish tome of instruction that had gone astray: “Missing: The second part of the 15th volume of the Edinburgh Encyclopædia Britannica, supposed to have been lent, or taken by mistake, from the Shop of James Ainslie, Stationer. Any person who has it will do a favour to the Proprietor by returning it to Mr. Neilson.”70 Print was an important means to stay connected with others, a cherished commodity that was transported with respect and misplaced only at the chagrin of its owners. A useful source that sheds light on the print community particularly in Quebec City are the published catalogues of the Quebec Library. Founded at the height of the American Revolution, the example of the Quebec Library underscores both the tastes of local readers as well as the power that print was believed to wield in society. Governor Frederick 66 Halifax Gazette, all editions, June–July 1754. 67 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 15 February 1780, 2. 68 The list of missing books in their entirety equalled: “four Volumes of the Foundling Hospital, viz. Sewed in Marble. 1st, and 2d Vols. Of Lelland’s History of Ireland, 3d Vol. Dodsley’s Poems, Les Premiers 4 Toms, de La Mythologie des Anciens par L’abbe Banier, & Une Lettre de J. Jacsue [sic] Rousseau à Monsr. D’Alembert touchant la Propriere d’une Theatre Geneva, with some others.” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 15 February 1780, 2. 69 Quebec Herald, 17 December 1789, 28. 70 Ibid., 9 November 1797, 3.

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Haldimand, criticized by contemporaries and historians as unbending and authoritarian and described by historian Hilda Neatby “rigid and obstinate,”71 showed a surprising liberality in advocating for the library. It was an institution that had the potential to unify colonial society and, in his words, “promote a more perfect coalition of sentiments, and union of Interests, between the old and new subjects of the Crown, than has hitherto subsisted.”72 On 15 January 1779 a public meeting was held at the Bishop’s Palace in Quebec City to address the creation of a library.73 The main intention of the meeting was to solicit and bring together subscribers and, from that body elect officials to run the new institution. By the end of the meeting, not only had a secretary, treasurer, and five trustees been elected, but the popularity of the project was such that it was agreed that the proposed library should also be expanded to include subscribers in Montreal.74 Fifteen days later, treasurer Peter Lister ordered 200 receipts from the Quebec Gazette printing office, half in English and half in French, to facilitate the loan of materials even though an exact date of opening for the new library was still unknown.75 In spite of an initial £5 fee and a commitment to a subsequent yearly charge of £2, subscriptions to the yet-to-be-built library proved popular. By March 1779, Governor Haldimand observed that “plusieurs prêtres presques tous les marchants Anglois & plusieurs Canadiens” had already subscribed and he had to move quickly to acquire books, so as not to “laisser refroider le zele de ces messieurs.”76 Acknowledging the existence of a well-read and influential print community in the capital, the newly elected library trustees first turned to the public to acquire books for the fledgling institution. “Those who have any Books, for which they have no immediate use,” secretary Arthur Davidson announced, “are requested to send a Catalogue thereof, with prices, edition and condition of them … so (if approved of) the Trustees

71 Neatby, Quebec, 172. 72 lac, Haldimand Papers, B66, Letter: Frederick Haldimand to Richard Cumberland, 2 March 1779, Reel A–664. 73 Quebec Gazette, 7 January 1779, 2. 74 The elected trustees were the Rev. Henri-François Gravé [de la Rive], Dr Adam Mabane, merchant François Baby, merchant Peter Fargues, and Judge James Monk. The treasurer and secretary were Peter Lister and Arthur Davidson, respectively. Gray was to receive any subscriptions from the Montreal region and Davidson from the Quebec region. Donations without subscription were also encouraged. See Quebec Gazette, 21 January 1779. 75 “Brown / Neilson Shop Records,” in Early Canadian Printing, eds Fleming and Alston, 452. 76 lac, Haldimand Papers, B66, lettre: Frederick Haldimand à General Bude, 1 March 1779, Reel H–1438.

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may inspect and purchase them for the use of the Library.”77 Later, Governor Haldimand – hoping to speed up the process – entrusted colonial agent and noted eighteenth-century playwright Richard Cumberland with £500 to purchase books for the library and asked Cumberland to assist the trustees in the selection of appropriate publications.78 Unfortunately, the American Revolution delayed shipments of new books and diverted  the  attention of Quebec’s engaged community of library supporters. With the end of the conflict in 1783 came a renewed interest in the institution. Like so many other subscriber-based services and institutions ranging from newspapers to benevolent societies, the Quebec Library enjoyed more patrons than paid subscribers. To encourage paying members, a new and substantially cheaper subscription rate of twenty shillings per year for a non-voting member and thirty shillings a year for a full member was instituted.79 The breadth of the collections – including works of ancient history, contemporary law and politics, and natural and moral philosophy – was also highlighted, with library trustees boasting of over 2,000 “useful and entertaining” books.80 The earliest known library catalogue dates to 1785 and offers a complete list of French and English titles available to subscribers. As historian Mark Towsey reminds us, the analysis of library catalogues is one to be undertaken cautiously. Such lists do not necessarily tell us about the specific process in which books were selected, nor if the selections proved popular with actual readers.81 Nonetheless, library catalogues can provide an historical snapshot, a “general sense of the cultural landscape,”82 and in the case of a public institution catalogues can offer an aperçu of the directors’ perception of public taste. In the case of the Quebec Library, when the institution was established the collection policy was clearly laid out in an announcement in the Quebec Gazette that observed “the Books will be lent out to the Subscribers according to Regulations which are forming by the Trustees.” Readers were assured that “particular attention will be given that no Books contrary to Religion, or good Morals, will be permitted.”83 Indeed, one might be excused for thinking that censorship was implicit in the operations of the library as the composition of the 77 Ibid. 78 lac, Haldimand Papers, B66, Letter: Frederick Haldimand to Richard Cumberland, 2 March 1779, Reel A–664. 79 Quebec Herald, 29 December 1788, 54. 80 Ibid. 81 Towsey, “‘Philosophically Playing the Devil’: Recovering Readers’ Responses to David Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment,” 306. 82 Ibid., 307. 83 Quebec Gazette, 21 January 1779, 3.

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initial board of trustees including two judges, two established merchants, and the Roman Catholic priest newly appointed as superior of the Séminaire de Quebec.84 In the initial catalogue of books, the English titles were divided amongst eight categories and the French titles separated into ten separate groups. In addition to the Holy Bible and various prayer books, the works that fell under the category of “Religion” also included dictionaries of the Bible as well as sermons and essays on faith. In the French-language catalogue, the titles run along similar lines with Les Erreurs de Voltaire, par Abbé Nonnotte (1770) and the Anti-Dictionnaire Philosophique (1775) standing out as two clear examples of counter-Enlightenment thought obviously deemed by the Trustees to accord with religion and good morals. It would be misleading, however, to think that the Trustees’ attention to such issues led to overt acts of censorship. The Trustees also approved the acquisition of a complete set of the Dictionnaire Encyclopedie in French – that quintessential tome of the French Enlightenment – as well as forty volumes of Voltaire’s works in French and thirty-nine volumes in English.85 Considering the stated attention to the propriety of reading materials and the background of the institution’s trustees, it is interesting to note that, of the Quebec Library’s initial 196 titles in English, only twenty were classified specifically to concern “Religion.” Of the institution’s 206 French-language titles, only eleven were classified under “Réligion.”86 Over the next ten years the Quebec Library’s collections grew by 278 English-language and ninety French-language titles resulting in over 1,000 additional volumes.87 While the number of titles in the French and English “Religion” section also grew, they did not keep pace with the general increase elsewhere and actually declined as a percentage of the entire collection.88 The collection offered a who’s who of popular eighteenthcentury writers including Adam Smith (1723–1790), Adam Ferguson 84 Quebec Gazette, 21 January 1779. 85 Catalogue of English and French Books in the Quebec Library, MDCCLXXXV, 7, 21, 23 (CIHM #95342). 86 A complete breakdown of the titles in the library as of 1785 can be found in: Catalogue of English and French Books in the Quebec Library, MDCCLXXXV. 87 Catalogue of English and French Books in the Quebec Library, At the BISHOP’S PALACE Where the RULES may be seen, Quebec: New Printing Office, 1796 (CIHM #95095). 88 In 1785, twenty English-language books were categorized as pertaining to “Religion,” or 10.2 per cent of the entire English-language collection. At the same time, eleven French-language books, or 5.3 per cent of the entire French-language collection were considered to address “Réligion.” In the 1796 catalogue of French and English books, only 9.4 per cent (thirty-five) of English books and 4.7 per cent (fourteen) of French books were classified under religion. See Catalogue of English and French Books in the Quebec Library, MDCCLXXXV, 1 and 13; and Catalogue of English and French Books in the Quebec Library, At the BISHOP’S PALACE Where the RULES may be seen, (Quebec: New Printing Office, 1796), 3, 20.

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(1723–1816), Henry Home (1696–1782), Tobias Smollett (1721–1771), Laurence Sterne (1713–1768), Henry Fielding (1707–1754), and Oliver Goldsmith (1730–1774).89 Beside the names of more classical moral philosophers such as Francis Bacon (1561–1626) and John Locke (1632– 1704) were also found the names of Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733), Montesquieu (1689–1755), Voltaire (1694–1778), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).90 The colonial print community demonstrated similar tastes to those elsewhere in America and across the Atlantic, and had similar access to the latest romances, novels, histories, and works of natural and moral philosophy.91 Scholars have not made much of the Quebec Library as an early scholarly institution in Canada. Cultural histories and histories of print mention the existence of the Library, yet it is often as a side observation, or as a checkmark on a list of the literary achievements of the eighteenth century.92 This lack of attention may be partly due to the fact that in comparison to other colonial American libraries, the Quebec Library was a relative latecomer. Instead of being seen as groundbreaking, the Quebec Library has been seen as merely derivative of earlier institutions such as Franklin’s Book Company, or the public libraries of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, or New York.93 The Quebec Library has also been overshadowed by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, an institution formed in 1834 that remains Canada’s oldest continuing literary society.94 While the creation of the Quebec Library lagged behind the development of like institutions in colonial America, nevertheless the library fared equally with, or was even ahead of, the creation of similar 89 “Mathematics, Natural and Moral Philosophy,” and “Mathematique, Phisique et Philosophie Naturelle et Morale,” Catalogue of English and French Books in the Quebec Library (MDCCLXXXV), 4, 16–17. These initial works are augmented over the next ten years. See “Sciences, Arts and Literature,” and “Poetry, Plans and Novels,” in Catalogue of English and French Books in the Quebec Library, At the BISHOP’S PALACE Where the RULES may be seen (Quebec: New Printing Office, 1796), 7–11, 16, 22–26. 90 Ibid. 91 Winans, “The Growth of a Novel-reading Public in Late Eighteenth-century America”; Joyce et al. eds., Printing and Society in Early America; Black, The English Press in the Eighteenth Century; Hall, Cultures of Print; Amory and Hall, eds, A History of the Book in America; Raven, London Booksellers and American Customers; Sher, The Enlightenment and the Book. 92 As in Hare, Lafrance, and Ruddel, Histoire de la ville de Québec, 133; Lamonde, Histoire sociale des idées au Québec, 163; Hayne, “A Survey”; Fleming et al., eds, History of the Book in Canada, 145. 93 Franklin’s famous Library Company was founded in 1731 and Philadelphia’s Union Library Company in 1746. In New England alone between 1733 and 1780 fifty-one “social libraries” were established. See Beales and Green, “Libraries and Their Uses,” in A History of the Book in America, eds Amory and Hall, 399–404. 94 Drolet, Les bibliothèques Canadiennes, 96.

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subscriptions or circulating libraries in Great Britain.95 As members of the colonial print community emulated the tastes for British literature found across the Atlantic, the print community also mirrored the British trend of establishing new reading institutions. In this sense the Quebec Library should not be seen as redundant or behind the times, but rather as resonant with and of the times. From the correspondence of colonial readers and the colonial print record itself, the identities of those who participated in the print community, their wider circles of interaction, and the general taste for printed works begins to emerge. Print was a valued commodity to these citizens. Readers enjoyed the newest novels, histories, and works of poetry, and also had access to older and more revered works of British philosophy, satire, and fiction. In addition to commercial transatlantic networks of print distribution, members of the print community forged their own widespread personal networks to ensure a constant flow of reading materials. For them print was a respected carrier of news and information and the messages it conveyed were deemed important in influencing their own behaviour. A public of sophisticated readers and potential print contributors formed around the print of Halifax and Quebec City in the second half of the eighteenth century. These literate colonists believed in the value of print to educate and direct behaviour. Members of this community believe that the ability to read elevated them from the illiterate of society. Bolstered by this exclusionary perception, some members of this community would go on to use the press to shape a colonial elite defined by both the lessons that print diffused and their own perceptions of proper British tradition. Members of the colonial print community could either forge elite social relationships around print or at least be apprised of the actions of the upper echelons of colonial society to which they aspired. In this era, men of varied educations and career trajectories could find common ground through a shared belief in the value of knowledge, and through the printed word. Sociability, once the domain of strictly physical interaction and oral exchange, became dependent on print as a means to advise readers of the newest fashions and forms of interaction. Those who could read were privy to a direct conduit of ideas, opinion, traditions, and norms. The colonial print community was comprised of

95 See, for example, Kaufman, “Community Lending Libraries in Eighteenth-century Ireland and Wales”; Kaufman, “The Rise of Community Libraries in Scotland”; Cole, “Community Lending Libraries in Eighteenth–century Ireland”; Allan, “Provincial Readers and Book Culture in the Scottish Enlightenment”; Allan, A Nation of Readers, 32, 43, 65, 92, 129; Towsey, ‘“All the Partners may be Enlightened and Improved by Reading them.’”

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prominent residents such as colonial administrators, clergy, principal landowners, and seigneurs as well as military and naval officers, medical practitioners, and transient gentlemen and their families. However, it also allowed literate merchants, ships’ captains, shopkeepers and traders, ordinary soldiers, and farmers to participate in the conversation as long as they followed what were deemed the appropriate rules and social cues, as we shall see in the next chapter. The newspaper forum was unlike any other type form of sociability and exchange experienced in Halifax or Quebec City. Members of the colonial print community took advantage of the unprecedented power of the press to diffuse news, opinion, and ideas. While some members of this group were committed to the printers’ ideals of the dissemination of knowledge to a broad reading public, others increasingly used the press as a means to fashion and manipulate a cultural elite to which they could aspire. Halifax’s and Quebec City’s elite would possess many similarities, including a shared esteem for the literary references, fashionable behaviour, and British cultural norms that print was so well suited to communicate.

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3 “Directing Public Taste”: British Tradition, Social Control, and the Newspaper The introduction of presses in Halifax and Quebec City led to the creation of a colonial print community, an eclectic group unified through literacy and a shared belief in the potential of print to advance their social, intellectual, and economic interests. Participants in this informal collective also turned to print for advice regarding how to shape their behaviour, and believed in its capacity to influence the actions of others. The colonial print community relished the press and maintained transatlantic networks around print distribution. In the two capitals, a preference was exhibited for imported works from Great Britain, a taste that savvy colonial printers appealed to in their own domestic publications. Some members of the print community forged an active relationship with the press under carefully chosen pseudonyms. Through letters to the newspaper, they expressed their opinions and hoped to change the opinions of others. In so doing, they criticized or attempted to redirect behaviour within perceived British norms or traditions. “Perhaps there are those who may smile at the idea of the dignity of a Newspaper,” a correspondent using the pseudonym of Censor wrote to the Quebec Herald in 1790, “I cannot help, however, thinking that they who … exert all their powers for public entertainment, with delicacy, fidelity, and judgement, deserve a considerable degree of respect.” Under “proper regulations,” the correspondent continued, newspapers were “highly useful as well as amusing,” not only in the medium’s ability to chronicle events, but more importantly in providing readers of “thinking and enlightened minds” a “chain of causes and effects” in which events could be properly judged in context. Using a Shakespearean metaphor to possibly gain the favour of William Moore, the Herald’s thespian printer, Censor argued that newspapers “ought to show ‘virtue her own image, vice her own feature:’ And not only to show them, but also bestow the reward of

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praise, and the punishment of just satire and indignation.”1 Newspapers possessed a great power, he argued, in the “directing of public taste, and re-echoing the public opinion.” Concluding in almost blasphemous terms, Censor observed that print was a more powerful behavioural incentive or deterrent than “the united force of all moral (or I had almost said religious) considerations.”2 The vast majority of letters to colonial newspapers employed pseudonyms, either describing the correspondent in generic terms, appropriating literary or historical characters, or otherwise styling themselves in a manner reflecting the nature of their correspondence. For example, The Private was the name used by a writer who wrote on military affairs.3 A Patron of Eloquence and Demosthenes were used by authors of letters on the importance of oratory.4 An Old Subscriber, Momus, Civis, Junius, Publicola, and Pro Bono Publico all graced letters that criticized, or suggested improvements to, colonial society.5 The use of pseudonyms makes it difficult to be certain about the identity of correspondents as some letters were undoubtedly penned by individuals who were quite different from whom they purported to be. Indeed, the use of simple pseudonyms such as J.S.,6 Y.Z,7 or An Old Subscriber tells us little today, as whatever contextual clues were available to the colonial reading public have all but vanished. Nonetheless, such letters can shed some valuable light on the intellectual background and demographic composition of the reading and writing public. Pseudonyms that used literary and historical references attest to the general education of both authors and the intended readership. Such is the case for innumerable noms de plume including Momus, the Greek god of mockery and censure,8 and Demosthenes, the orator who overcame

1 The paraphrase comes from Hamlet act 3, scene 2, lines 15–24 where Hamlet is talking to a company of players: “Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance that you o’er step not the modesty of nature. For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” Emphasis added. 2 Quebec Herald, 18 October 1790, 382. 3 Ibid., 7 January 1791, 53. 4 Quebec Herald, 3 January 1791, 55, and Quebec Herald, 3 January 1791, 53. 5 Quebec Herald, 7 January 1791, 53; Quebec Herald, 3 January 1791, 53, 22 to 29 December 1788, 51, 22 November 1790, 4, 15 March 1790, 134–5; Halifax Gazette, 25 December 1765, 4; Quebec Herald, 26 November 1789, 5. 6 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 28 November 1769, 390. 7 Halifax Gazette, 30 March 1752, 1. 8 “Momus,” in Marindin, A Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography Mythology and Geography by Sir William Smith, D.C.L., L.L.D., 572.

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a speech impediment to become one of the most eloquent speakers of the classical world.9 Pseudonyms such as Junius show contemporary culture’s awareness of popular eighteenth-century figures or, as in this case, satirical contributors to other newspapers.10 Even if authors styled themselves as someone else the guise had to be plausible, or else the printer and other readers would be quick to criticize or reject the letter. Moore, like other colonial printers, paid keen attention to letters that were submitted for publication. However, unlike his colonial peers he not only published letters, but also the reasons why they were not published. Both content and the authors’ styled credentials were fair game to Moore’s barbs. In rejecting a letter from one Jerry Sneak (a name likely taken from the corrupt mayor in Samuel Foote’s popular play the Mayor of Garratt), Moore explained that the writer had failed on both accounts: “jerry sneak’s Complaint is not of consequence for the Herald and rather to [sic] daring for a ‘paltry, puddling, prying, Pin-maker.’”11 A well-regulated newspaper was indeed an important social forum in both Quebec City and Halifax. Censor likened the newspaper to the stage, since both forms could provide a mirror for society to view itself. It could direct public taste, reflect public opinion, and be a powerful moral incentive or deterrent in the shaping of behaviour. Newspapers in both Halifax and Quebec City were a new and dynamic venue of sociability that was embraced and nurtured by members of the culturally ascendant print community. Through the vehicle of the press, those who formed the colonial print community engaged in this “directing of public taste,” a process that, in the words of one of the community’s own, held a moral suasion almost equalling that of religion. Print was used as means for the literate to regulate, direct, or otherwise improve literate society. From the publishing of legal proclamations to the voicing of readers’ opinions, the boundaries of elite colonial society were established and could be transmitted by word of mouth from the literate community of readers to the less literate segments of society. Readers, following the example set by printers, used newspapers as a means to fashion the ideal colonial subject. As print was used by the colonial print community to bring order to the greater colonial society, its members also expected the print 9 “Demosthenes,” in Marindin, A Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography 282–3. 10 Habermas writes on the importance of the letters of Junius that were printed from 1768 to 1772. Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, 60–1. The letters of Junius, available from colonial booksellers, also captured the attention of British North Americans and the pseudonym Junius, Junius Americanus, etc. are used in both the Halifax and Quebec City prints. 11 Quebec Herald, 15 December 1788, 31.

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medium to be well regulated. They publicly called upon printers for propriety in their productions, and printers dutifully fostered the debate in their newspapers. Those who contributed to print also exhibited an awareness of these rules and likewise endeavoured to meet the expectations of fellow contributors and print readers. Thus, the newspaper became a powerful tool for the formation and expression of elite norms and behaviour based on ideals such as useful knowledge, civic improvement, and propriety. The power of print to inform and engage readers was recognized early by colonial authorities, who were some of the first and most visible patrons of the news presses in Halifax and Quebec City. The Halifax Gazette and Quebec Gazette were the official record for legislative proceedings and their respective publishers were awarded the contract of King’s Printer.12 In this role, printers would publish public ordinances and proclamations in the newspaper13 and in broadsides for distribution.14 The duties of the King’s Printer also included the production of the numerous forms, licenses, and other print documents required to facilitate the daily operations of the colonial bureaucracy.15 From 1758 in Nova Scotia and

12 For a full list of King’s Printers see Fleming et al., eds, The History of the Book in Canada, 318–19. 13 Some examples showing the variety of proclamations found include: Proclamation (Governor Francis Legge) against illegal land occupation and tree cutting, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle (Halifax), 22 February 1774, 3; Proclamation (Governor Francis Legge) for the proper observance of the Lord’s Day, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 11 October 1774, Supplement, 2; Proclamation (Governor Francis Legge) “For a General Thanksgiving,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 11 October 1774, 3; Proclamation (Governor Francis Legge) of investigation to reports of improper accounting in Nova Scotia, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 10 January 1775, 3; Proclamation (Governor Francis Legge) identifying Nova Scotia as an Asylum for loyalists, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 24 October 1775, 3; Proclamation (Governor James Murray) on the publishing of ordinances, Quebec Gazette, 4 October 1764, 2; Proclamation (Governor Guy Carleton) on the selling of spirituous liquors, Quebec Gazette, 30 November 1775, 3; Proclamation (George III) “For suppressing rebellion and sedition,” Quebec Gazette, 8 August 1776, 1; Proclamation (Governor Dorchester): Encouraging the Import of Grains, Quebec Herald, 8 June 1789, 255. 14 Between 1764 and 1800 approximately 3,100 imprints were produced. Of that only 11 per cent or ninety handbills and proclamations have been found. In regard to Nova Scotia: “only some three dozen public notices from eighteenth-century Nova Scotia are known, including fourteen proclamations from the very first decade of Halifax printing, when a quick succession of governors attempted to regulate public conduct … the record is even thinner for early printing offices in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.” Fleming, “Public Print,” in History of the Book in Canada, eds Fleming et al., 217. 15 Ibid., 310–13, 315.

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1791 in Quebec, notices were also published in the colonial newspapers regarding elections for the assembly, proposed legislation, and passed acts.16 The fact that print was rapidly adopted as the only means of informing the public of government policy and proclamations illustrates the importance of the press to colonial officials. In British Quebec City from 1759 to 1763, while under martial law, the publicizing of government ordinances involved their public reading in the town square. With the announcement of edicts publicly, theoretically all people regardless of their literacy, would be able to hear and understand the content of the proclamation. However, after the establishment of the Quebec Gazette in 1764, an ordinance was passed that added the newspaper to the list of traditional modes of publishing proclamations. In explaining this addition, Governor James Murray noted that “publishing in the Quebec Gazette has been found the most convenient and expeditious Method of conveying knowledge to the Publick, [for] all such Matters and Things [that] have been, or may be thought proper to communicate to them.”17 This practice of publicizing government directives through both the spoken word and print lasted until 1777 when Governor Sir Guy Carleton declared that the printing of any ordinance in the Quebec Gazette “shall be deemed a sufficient publication thereof.”18 Adopting the policy of solely printing ordinances shows that authorities were convinced that the illiterate, and those of lesser literacy, could become aware of textual message through the routine interactions of colonial life whether in the marketplace, the Church, the coffeehouses and taverns, or other spaces where print and oral knowledge could be exchanged. In the eyes of the 16 For examples of published election results see Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 8 to 15 May 1770, 167; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 16 August 1774, 3; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 6 September 1774, 3; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 25 May 1779, 3. For a selection of various published acts (from Westminster, in legislature, and in council) see Militia Act, Halifax Gazette, 5 January 1754, 1; Various acts “passed by the assembly,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 4 May 1773, 1; Act prohibiting unlicensed taverns, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 31 January 1775, 3; Poor Relief Act, Quebec Herald, 20 April 1789, 197; “More Effectually to Prevent the Desertion of Seamen from the Merchants Service,” Quebec Herald, 3 May 1790, 189; “For the Better Preservation and Due Distribution of the Ancient French Records,” Quebec Herald, 3 May 1790, 189; “To Amend An Act or Ordinance for preventing accidents by fire passed in the seventeenth year of his Majesty’s reign,” Quebec Herald, 17 May 1790, 205. 17 “An Ordinance, declaring what shall be deemed a due Publication of the Ordinances of the Province of Quebec,” 4 George III, 3 October 1764. 18 “An Ordinance Declaring what shall be deemed a due publication of the ordinances of the province,” 7 George III, c. 4, 4 March 1777.

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government authorities in Quebec, print was becoming the ascendant and official means of communication in the colony. This can be seen as a monumental change where in the span of just a decade, the official definition of “publication” changed from primarily an oral act to a printed one. This incidence also underscores the contemporary perception that printed messages could and did transcend beyond the bounds of the literate community. In addition to state-sponsored messages and proclamations, the press also increasingly exhibited the productions of individual colonists intended to inform the public of issues, change behaviour, or otherwise to regulate society. These efforts took several forms, ranging from specific censures and public apologies to general, philosophical musings on proper public behaviour or social interaction. The use of print specifically to censure wives who had left their spouses provides a clear illustration of the regulating power of print. Under British common law, husbands were required to declare publicly the unlawful departure of a wife in order to be absolved of any subsequent debts that the eloped spouse might incur. Such announcements were relatively frequent in the newspapers of Nova Scotia and not unknown in Quebec, even though the province was subject to the provisions of French civil law. A typical advertisement named the wife, furnished a list of grievances, and concluded with a plea not to make any financial dealings with the estranged woman. “Whereas Hannah the Wife of me the Subscriber,” one such advertisement from Charles Wright read: hath for a long Time been very remise [sic] in her Duty towards myself and Children, by keeping bad Company, living in idleness and such like vicious Acts and Practices, as tend wholly to subvert all kind of Family Order and Government, and hath at last unjustly made away by pledging and selling, with a great part of my Household Furniture … hath eloped from my Bed and Board. This is therefore to give Notice to all and all manner of Persons, that they do not trust or give any Credit to the said Hannah, on my Account … And I do give this further Notice to all good People with whom my said Wife may have pledged or bargained with for any of my said Household Furniture that if they will return the same to me in the like Condition as it was taken away, I will repay the Money.19

George Greaves placed a similar announcement after he found out that his wife, who had left him seven years earlier “and in a scandalous Manner co-habitated with Strangers,” had recently returned to Halifax.20 19 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 12 September 1775, 3. 20 Ibid., 7 November 1775, 3.

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By placing such announcements, allegedly wronged husbands publicly absolved themselves from financial responsibility for their wives and publicly chastised them for breaking the marital contract.21 The press thus provided a means to solicit public support for what they believed were their wives’ violations of acceptable behaviour.22 Gossip, or town talk, was a hallmark of everyday life in colonial Halifax and Quebec City. “It is extremely hard, gentlemen” an author under the pseudonym S.B. wrote to the Quebec Herald, “that in this small town, there should be persons who busy themselves in spreading evil reports of others, in my opinion a mark should be set upon them, that the world may at least know their enemy.”23 In 1773, a writer to the Nova-Scotia Gazette, noticing the prevalence of gossip in Halifax, asked the printer to re-­ publish an article penned by the English writer John Dryden that he had read in the Spectator. In prefacing the excerpt, the author took aim at the younger members of colonial society whom he believed to be the worst culprits of the offence: Perusing the other day the Spectator, I met with a Letter … so well adapted to the times and so very applicable to some in this little part of the Globe … as there are some of that younger part … [who] spend too much time in places of diversion and amusement and fling away so much of their precious time … in repeating what he may term the common chit chat of the place, and will turn a deaf ear to reason who tells them the injury they are doing some innocent person, and a character once lost is hardly ever to be regained.24

The observations of an author, under the name A.V., reveal much about the growing division in opinion concerning the nature of refined sociability and entertainments that were seen increasingly as self-indulgent or meaningless. It is clear that A.V. believed himself to be of a traditional, superior upbringing. He read and, as he observed, was therefore worldly 21 Under English common law and the doctrine of coverture women could only enter into financial agreements in the name of their husbands. This practice of publishing the names and stories of wives who had abandoned their husbands was also commonplace in eighteenth-century Britain. See Bailey, Unquiet Lives, 12–14. 22 Other examples of such advertisements include Mary Goget the wife of Pastry Chef Frederick Goget, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 14 September 1779, 3; Marie Mackan, wife of David Mackan, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 23 May 1780, 3; Margaret Martin the wife of Isaac Martin, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 11 July 1780, 3; Sarah Ballintine wife of James Ballintine, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 5 September 1780, 3; Susannah Jones wife of Owen Jones, Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 22 May 1787, 3. 23 Quebec Herald, 1 April 1790, 151. 24 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 2 March 1773, 3.

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in “this little part of the Globe.” Print, and particularly that produced in Britain (such as the Spectator), informed his behaviour – not “common chit chat,” which he argued defies reason and can only injure the innocent. It is difficult to assess the influence of the press on the illiterate, or on those who could not read English, in Halifax and Quebec City. Little evidence remains that attests to their interaction with print, or to their reception of the messages that it diffused. As we have seen, government authorities in Quebec – confident in the ability of the illiterate to acquired printed information – adopted a text-only policy in the publication of official ordinances. Contemporary descriptions of the prevalence of gossip, and fears of its deleterious effects, shed some further light on the power and messages of the spoken word to transcend the literate community in colonial society. Print, although itself a forum for gossip and scandal, was also seen as a means to trump the barbs of the spoken word. In this spirit, members of the colonial print community used local newspapers as an invaluable way to regain character believed to have been lost through gossip and town talk. In 1765, John Tong agreed to have a dictated apology published in the Halifax Gazette for rumours he had spread about two local merchants: Whereas I John Tong, have inconsiderately, and falsely reported and swore many things to the disadvantage of Messrs John Mergerum and William Howard South, Gentlemen, both of Halifax, who are willing to forgive me on this public recantation. Therefore I do hereby declare any charge reflecting upon both, or either of the said Gentlemen, to be entirely false and without foundation and I do sincerely ask their Pardons.25

Tong dictated the apology as he was unable to read it. This illiteracy is further attested by the printed “x” at the bottom statement listed as “his mark.” In the minds of those whom he had slandered, the only effective means to extinguish his rumour and gossip was through a printed statement that was seen as longer lasting, more authoritative, and more rational than oral discourse. The fact that he was forced to make this apology in print and admit to his inability to read or write shows that the act was calculated to embarrass as well as offer a public statement of contrition. When the perpetrator of a rumour could not be found, or could not be dealt with effectively in private, the newspaper was once again used as a means to publicly acknowledge rumour and communicate displeasure. In one instance, an anecdote submitted to Anthony Henry’s Nova-Scotia 25 Halifax Gazette, 17 October 1765, 2.

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Gazette and Weekly Chronicle related the plight of an anonymous gentleman rumoured to have abused his servants, and hid a not-too-veiled message to local gossips. “There is a Gentleman living in a Town in this Province, who hears the character, as Town-talk would have it,” it was reported in 1773, “of starving his Servants, his Prentices, and such young gentlemen as are put to board with him, &c. &c. &c.” It is clear that the author of the anecdote found that the rumours were without basis and dispelled them summarily, observing “the sagacity of this Mr. Town-talk, is, that, the said Servants, Prentices and other things, there starving for want of Victuals, do grow tall and stout; very fast, have rosy Cheeks to countenance their deplorable tale, and are in much better health than when they came into the Gentleman’s house.” In a final parting shot the anecdote concluded that, in actual fact, “the said Gentleman and his Yard Dog, are the only two thin and lean creatures in the family. So goodbye to you Mr. Town-talk.”26 Such unattributed anecdotes are intentionally oblique, commenting on what would have been a well-known situation and thus not requiring further explanation. Furthermore, this type of commentary stemmed primarily from the printer and, in this case, illustrates Anthony Henry’s frustration with unfounded gossip and his use of print to right any damage that the spoken word had created. Printers were not the only ones to use the press to right what was seen as injustice created through gossip. Matthias King, in a less subtle approach than a printer’s anecdote, dispelled rumours of his allegedly inappropriate behaviour with two local women. “WHEREAS certain scandalous and malicious Reports have circulated tending to defame the characters of Miss P**** and Miss M**** of this Place, and said to have originated with me,” King observed in an advertisement he placed in the Nova-Scotia Gazette in 1774: This is to Certify the Public that I have already satisfied the Friends of these Ladies, that I never did directly or indirectly say or cause to be said any thing to the prejudice of the Persons above meant, and do further accuse the Author or Authors of the above Report to be guilty of a most infamous and scandalous Falsehood.27

Through print, those who had been the victim of spoken accusations could both answer their detractors and attempt to influence the opinion of the reading public.

26 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 27 April 1773, 3. 27 Ibid., 21 June 1774, 3.

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In a similar vein, members of the colonial print community appealed to local newspapers to show their discontent with society, or to alter social behaviour. The press was seen in many quarters not only as a basic British right but as an important tool to remind subjects of their other rights and responsibilities – many of which, as one commentator to the Quebec Herald observed, had an influence far beyond the print medium. “Sir, however zealous you may be … in the liberty of your free press,” the correspondent A Court Cringer wrote in 1791: “I would have you to know, that the liberty of the subject, far, very far transcends that of the press.” The author who fashioned himself A Court Cringer, it should be underscored, was not an opponent of the press. Instead, he saw it as a special type of liberty in which other British rights and freedoms could be communicated and preserved. As he concluded: “the person who stands out in the defence of his own and the public rights, is one of the most darling sons of the English constitution, and ought to be fostered and supported by every well-wisher of British rights, a true independent spirit will always spurn at every attack on their hereditary rights.28 This belief that the press could be used both to promote British liberties and correct colonial deviations from the British norms was witnessed in both capitals. Almost twenty-five years earlier in Halifax, a letter authored by Libertas to the printer of the Halifax Gazette observed: “It is the duty of every individual, of what class or denomination soever, to conduct himself on every occasion, wherein either public or private communities are concerned, so as to make himself a useful member of society; to consider the good of the whole rather than a Part; and to prefer the public good before any private interest.”29 Indeed, this sentiment expressing the importance of the public good over individual interest is found throughout the late eighteenth-century prints in Halifax and Quebec City.30 Similar strains can also be seen in the remonstrance that we witnessed earlier penned by Civis Bonus Usque ad Mortem against Civis Canadiensis over the nature of British liberty. “Every new and old Subject knows what he owes to 28 Quebec Herald, 10 January 1791, 61. 29 Halifax Gazette, 28 November 1765, 1. 30 For examples see “philo–americae to philo–britaniae,” Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 3 January 1769, 4; “A Card of Compassion … from a well-wisher to the Peace of Society and the Good of the Public,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 30 May 1775, 3; “Ode for the New-Year,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 26 December 1780, 3; “On the Liberty of the Subjects,” Quebec Herald, 9 February 1789, 107; “We are happy to recount the unanimity and regularity which prevails in this City for the public good,” Quebec Herald, 12 April 1790, 165; “Address from the Chairman of the Agriculture Society,” Quebec Herald, 19 April 1790, 176; Quebec Herald, 23 December 1790, 37.

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­ imself, to His Sovereign, to His Representatives and to civil Society,” the h correspondent reminded readers of the Quebec Gazette in 1765: Our Duty to ourselves, is, to do nothing against Honor and Honesty, not to trouble that blessed Harmony which ought to subsist in civil Societies, to have a great deal of Circumspection and Reserve, and to do by others as we would be done by … we owe a great deal of Deference to Civil Society, the Members of which ought to live among themselves in Union and Peace, without any Altercations, to support and help one another mutually for the general Good, not to injure one another, and exactly to observe the Laws established by the Government under which we live.31

Appealing to concepts, as deployed in newspapers elsewhere in the British Atlantic, such as the nature of “civil society” and a Briton’s “duty,” members of the colonial print community argued for what they believed was the ideal blueprint for colonial society, a plan that underscored the importance of civic duty and acts of public good undertaken in an appropriately British fashion. It was in the spirit of improvement that contributors from the colonial print community moved from the diffusion of socio-political advice to the diffusion of useful knowledge through the medium of the press. As one correspondent to the Quebec Herald attested in 1790, the provision of useful knowledge, especially by furnishing examples or questions to the public, was a challenge that colonists were only too eager to meet: “In a Society of civilized people,” this correspondent – using the pseudonym A Friend – observed: every good citizen is anxious of informing himself of any useful subject, of which he is unacquainted; or of informing others in proportion to the knowledge himself possesses, and in such manner as will best answer such laudable intent, by respectfully submitting to the society of which he is a member the Subject, or Query on which he wishes to be informed: – or by carefully avoiding ostentation and calumny in answering any one. It is in consequence of such harmony and mutual efforts only that each member participates of the good qualities of all the rest and that societies advance to the knowledge and adoption of what is proper, and reject what is improper.32

31 Quebec Gazette, 17 October 1765, 4. 32 Quebec Herald, 5 April 1790, 158.

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Print was seen not only as a way to regulate society, but also for society to judge for themselves proper behaviour. For members of the print community, such as A Friend, useful knowledge was paramount to the formation of civilized citizens. Print proved a powerful medium to inform colonists of the importance of sociability and perhaps compel them to engage in sociable activities. In 1768, Halifax bookseller and printer Robert Fletcher published an anonymous letter in his Nova-Scotia Gazette extolling the social and intellectual benefits of possessing good manners. “Among the numerous advantages which knowledge has over Ignorance, and Refinement over Barbarity,” the Gazette’s readers were told, “the Rules of Politeness and Good Manners are justly considered as the greatest and commendable.” Good manners were essential generally, the letter continued, but of particular importance in the expression of ideas. “There is a grace, a beauty, and elegance,” the author went on, “in every generous action, which however difficultly expressed, is easily understood; however, variously displayed, is at the bottom still the same … Conversation is on all sides acknowledged the peculiar happiness of man, and is exceedingly desirable for the immediate pleasure it conveys, and the strong cement with which it consolidates a mutual intercourse.”33 The anonymous author (and the printer) believed that a proper comportment was required in society. It was a sociability of manners and good behaviour to which readers aspiring to the elite should adhere. Twenty-five years later, readers of the Quebec Magazine were also treated to an article lauding the virtues of polite behaviour and sociability. “Sociableness is always better than unsociableness” the anonymous author argued. “To be sociable,” the excerpted essay continued, “implies the communicating of our thoughts, our sentiments, our feelings, and views to each other, to compare them together, to barter them for others and to rectify and enable them by those of other men.”34 The Quebec Magazine’s editor looked to predominately British works to find like sentiments to fill the pages of his monthly publication. In this case, the excerpt came from the Moral and Philosophical Estimates of the State and Faculties of Man,35 a popular and exhaustive four-volume treatise from Britain described by the literary critic and early feminist Mary

33 Nova-Scotia Gazette, 28 July 1768, 4. 34 Quebec Magazine 3 (1793): 352–3. 35 Excerpted mid-chapter from “Estimate XXIII: The Value of Social Life,” in Anon., Moral and Philosophical Estimates of the State and Faculties of Man, 71–88. This work was later attributed to either Georg Joachim Zollikofer or William Tooke.

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Wollstonecraft36 as having “a manly plainness running through the style of the original, which must excite respect.”37 Printers and readers alike employed print to inform other readers of the types of moral sentiments and social norms to which they should adhere. Locally produced print was also used to debate the greater advantages of sociability and the importance of local club life. On 13 December 1790 a seemingly modest proposal was published in the Quebec Herald. The author – who signed the letter A Commis – did not write upon religion or revolution. Neither did he suggest any great social, nor political change. What he did seek was nonetheless unprecedented in the pages of the Herald: public approval for the establishment of an oratory club for the sole use of the young merchant clerks of Quebec City. “As we have reason to expect next spring, a great change in Administration, and that we will at last be blessed or cursed, as it may be, with the long-looked for House of Assembly,” the author posited, “I think it would be of great service to myself, and some other Commis, were we to have a weekly Club open to all our acquaintances, where to discuss public questions and so train ourselves up, that at a future day, we may be able to appear in that House, with honour to ourselves, and credit to our constituents.”38 Over the course of the next five months, ten additional letters would follow, engaging the readers of the Quebec Herald in a public debate over how public debate should be.39 The value of association and oratory, especially in the training of youth, became a focal point of discussion in the Quebec Herald. Most correspondents to the paper supported the idea of an oratory club for clerks, though one notable detractor questioned if the value of association might not be lost on the young participants. The author, writing under the name of Will Wimble, questioned if such an activity would only end in “riot and debauchery.”40 “I would propose, that instead of the said weekly Club,” Will Wimble wrote, “you should set apart that evening, and as many more in the week as you could spare from your other occupations, to the serious reading of useful books; which, in my humble

36 Wollstonecraft’s seminal work, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, would later appear in the Quebec Magazine in an abridged version that had been translated into French. “Abrége de la defense des droits des femmes, par mary wollstonecraft” Quebec Magazine 4 (1794): 83–5. 37 Review of “Moral and Philosophical Estimates of the State of Man,” Analytical Review 7 (1790): 290, cited in Hodson, Language and Revolution in Burke, Wollstonecraft, Paine, and Godwin, 103–4. 38 Quebec Herald, 13 December 1790, 29. 39 For a further analysis of this incident see Eamon, “The Quebec Clerk Controversy.” 40 Quebec Herald, 20 December 1790, 37.

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opinion, would be much more edifying than any arguments would be produced by young men all equally ignorant.”41 Will Wimble’s concerns – though unpopular – were not unfounded, as many contemporary societies held no pretences of being more than a forum to gather, reminisce, and indulge in refreshments. Will Wimble’s unoptimistic stance notwithstanding, the majority of correspondents to the Quebec Herald nonetheless saw the proposed clerk society as a potentially vital part of a young man’s character formation. Newspapers informed readers of sociable trends, checked unsociable behaviour, and helped circumscribe the boundaries that sociability should take. It is unsurprising, then, that members of the colonial print community also used newspapers to announce upcoming sociable events deemed suitable for the interests and tastes of others who comprised print community. From charitable amateur theatrical performances to coffeehouse happenings, print was seen as a medium that would address directly the literate colonial elite, who believed in the importance of proper, genteel sociability. It was through newspapers that colonists could be kept apprised of dance assemblies, or unforeseen changes to the regular schedule of events. From the first year of its publication, the Quebec Gazette would dutifully announce the arrival of the next public ball (bal public)42 and later in the century the perennially popular Quebec Assembly (Assemblé de Quebec). Print also informed colonists of the yearly general meetings where managers would be elected from the body of subscribers for the next season.43 The same situation could be found in Halifax amongst the city’s various newspapers.44 Similarly, larger colonial gatherings such as the agriculture, fire, and benevolent societies, or the Quebec Library, would have the times of meetings and notices of important elections, proceedings, and decisions published in the press. Often public sociable events were undertaken in the name of charity and this aspect was prominently highlighted in newspapers. Charitable events frequently focused upon those in misfortune from the unforeseen consequences of colonial life such as drowning, fire, or sickness. One such event was advertised in the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle to take place on 3 November 1779 for “the Widow and the Family of the unfortunate Henry Baldwin, Master of the Hope schooner who was lately

41 Ibid., 20 December 1790, 37. 42 “A Public Ball,” Quebec Gazette, 27 December 1764, 3. 43 “Quebec Assembly,” Quebec Gazette, 1 December 1791, 5. 44 For examples see Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 1 June 1779, 3, 11 January 1780, 3, 1 April 1788, 3, and 6 January 1789, 3; Royal Gazette, 13 October 1795, 3 and 22 December 1795, 3.

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cast away.” Charitable events offered – for those who considered themselves a part of, or who were aspiring to, the colonial elite – a public means to demonstrate their benevolence and refinement. In this case, the organizers of the charitable event solicited those members of the print community who saw themselves as part of the colonial elite and also advertised entertainments that would appeal to those perceived to have elevated tastes. On this particular November evening performances of the Mirror of Nature and the popular British theatrical touchstone The Lecture on Heads were also accompanied by an educational session on a “Method of teaching young Children to read and write both in Prose and Verse.” In addition to providing an exemplar of entertainments enjoyed across the Atlantic, the event further offered a venue (albeit promoted as a method for teaching children) for the adults in attendance to become more culturally literate and to better appreciate the works of such quintessentially British authors as “Shakespeare, Pope and Addison.”45 Print was also employed to reassure readers that certain types of colonial sociability were appropriately civil in the British tradition. Civil society, as we have seen one writer to the Quebec Gazette argue, was marked by the ability for colonists to live in “Union and Peace, without any Altercations, to support and help one another mutually for the general good;” in short, to live in “beautiful Harmony.”46 Sociability, when conducted properly, was believed to reinforce these ideals, especially when conducted in larger public manifestations. Coffeehouses in Halifax and Quebec were promoted as centres of “genteel” entertainment.47 Theatrical performances staged, “in aid of Billiards, Dancing, Cards, & Song, / To shorten, Winter Evenings, cold and long”48 were described in the public prints as being conducted with “propriety”49 for “respectable” audiences.50 Public dances were lauded for their “decorum,”51 “polite Harmony,”52 and “agreeable entertainment.”53 The printer of the Quebec Gazette, commenting on the anniversary meeting of the Select Society in Montreal – a gathering of the “principal Gentlemen of the Military, Town and Environs” – elucidated in no uncertain terms the

45 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 2 November 1779, 3. 46 Quebec Gazette, 17 October 1765, 4. 47 Nova-Scotia Chronicle, 24 October 1769, 343. 48 Prologue to “Acadius, or Love in a Calm,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 8 February 1774, 3. 49 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 3 March 1789, 3. 50 Ibid., 20 March 1787, 3 and 3 March 1789, 3; Quebec Herald, 7 March 1791, 124. 51 Quebec Herald, 29 December 1788, 54. 52 Ibid., 12 January 1789, 71. 53 Ibid., 26 October 1789, 421.

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value of this form of sociability over other forms of association. “The whole was conducted with Elegance, Decorum and Propriety,” it observed, “and reflects Honor on a set of Gentlemen who dar’d thus publickly resist the present rapid Torrent of Gaming, and devote a Portion of their Leisure to so rational and useful an Amusement.”54 Such observations not only reassured the public of the propriety of larger gatherings, but also instilled the importance of well-regulated sociability as an integral part of civil society and proper behaviour. Using the press, some members of the colonial print community would occasionally rebuke other members who were perceived as being excessive or reckless in their sociability. In so doing, they drew cultural battle lines regarding the proper behaviour and comportment of the colonial elite. Printers, for example, would occasionally publish collections of maxims designed to shape sociable behaviour. Such was the case of the “Thoughts on Several Subjects” published by Anthony Henry in 1774 that encouraged readers to apply reason in the correction of behaviour, observing that “it is easy to keep from gaming, drunkenness, or any other fashionable vice. You have only to lay down a firm resolution, and fix in your mind a steady aversion against them. When your humour is known, no-body will trouble you.”55 In addition to the printers’ submissions, individual readers also contributed their own maxims for publication on such matters. Sometimes these contributions took the form of a subtle criticism couched in verse, as was the case of the anonymous card that appeared in the Nova-Scotia Gazette in 1773, addressed to “the Polite Circle in Halifax.” “Forbear my friends divisions to foment,” the short poem began: Be yours the joys of Peace, and Sweet content. Should any one prefer the noise of these, Let such confine it, to domestic life: Be great at home, and tyranize at will, Whilst we enjoy the dance, and play Quadrille. I wish the Man that would these hopes prevent May see his error, and in time repent: Then mix again, among the social few That always have true happiness in view.56

54 Quebec Gazette, 20 April 1775, 3. 55 “Thoughts on Several Subjects,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 1 February 1774, 4. 56 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 6 April 1773, 4.

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Other contributions were more direct, such as the poem that appeared the following month in the Nova-Scotia Gazette. Entitled “An Address to the Generation of Wine–Bibbers” and penned under the pseudonym Temperatus, it attacked a certain element of Halifax society “who Reason’s laws transgress” through an excess of drink. Fearing that his intended audience might not fully appreciate his message, Temperatus concluded with the rousing: “Awake! Awake to virtue then / And shew yourselves not beasts, – but men.”57 It should be underscored that these rebukes were not directed to the alcoholism of the illiterate tavern patron; rather they were directed from one literate member of the print community to another. Such was the case of the correspondent Censor who, writing again to the Quebec Herald in 1790, agreed that the overindulgence and lassitude exhibited by certain individuals could be potentially devastating to the entire colony. “As a citizen and friend to the inhabitants of this town,” he wrote: “I cannot help making a few remarks concerning the luxury, and dissipation, which reigns throughout among all classes and degrees of the people, but more particularly among the bon-ton, and those who are more immediately connected with the government.” While he believed that many inhabitants of Quebec City engaged in questionable forms of sociability, Censor highlighted the activities of the bureaucrats and government officers who possessed “a very mistaken idea that the pleasures and enjoyments of society are only to be found in large companies, where everyone vies with the other who shall exceed in the grandeur of the feast, and the brilliancy of their dress.” Attesting to both his education and his authority on such matters, Censor then compared the situation in Quebec City to that of ancient Rome and Greece. “It is an unfortunate circumstance that such a taste should prevail in an infant colony like this,” he opined, as “it has been the ruin of great empires, and if not speedily checked will have as bad an effect in this province. The Greeks and Romans formerly masters of the world, enervated by luxury, were overcome and conquered by a less effeminate people, innured to toil and labour.”58 Censor did not elaborate further on who he felt were the comparable “effeminate,” labouring people that threatened society in Quebec City. Perhaps, he referred to the canadiens who outnumbered the British in the province and were perceived by some as peasant-like, hard working, and uneducated. On the other hand, perhaps he referred to the newly arrived American loyalists who were perceived as ambitious, hardworking, and desirous of the limited patronage positions that existed in government. Regardless of the nature of the 57 Ibid., 25 May 1773, 4. 58 Censor, Quebec Herald, 8 March 1790, 126.

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perceived threat, Censor’s use of the press to warn those who enjoyed a privileged life to be neither overindulgent nor lazy is noteworthy. Who was Censor? Was he one of the government class that he criticized? Was he part of this undefined group marked by “toil and labour” that threatened those who considered themselves of the colonial elite? This type of criticism found in newspapers further illustrates the diversity of the colonial print community and the dynamism that existed in their discourse. Print permitted a much greater public to witness and comment upon the activities of others. Protected under pseudonyms, colleagues or social equals could criticize their peers in the press. Likewise, the older generation of literate colonists could criticize the behaviour of the newer generation. In other cases, the press afforded some members of the colonial print community a means to both be apprised of and comment upon the actions of others outside their direct professional or social experience. As members of the colonial print community perceived a tangible power of the press to influence opinion and behaviour, they also believed it necessary to safeguard the integrity and regulation of this influential medium. Printers were expected to properly conduct their affairs and contributors were equally expected to follow the rules of polite society in the expression of fair and thoughtful opinion. In Halifax and Quebec City, these rules of print politesse can be traced back to the earliest days of the press in Quebec City and Halifax. “A well regulated Printing Office,” the prospectus for the Quebec Gazette read in 1764, “has always been considered a publick benefit,” and “No Place of Note in the English dominions” has suffered from its presence.59 Part of the inherent “Englishness” or “Britishness” of the press was a belief that perceived British norms of utility and propriety were properly exercised. “Sir, I saw your Gazette of Monday last with great Satisfaction,” the correspondent Y.Z. wrote to the printer of the nascent Halifax Gazette in 1752, “not only as it was the first that ever was publish’d in this Province, but as I think the Letter very good, and the News Paragraphs judiciously chosen.” However, Y.Z. wrote not only to congratulate the printer, but to remind him of his obligations to the public: As I am a Lover of Liberty, I hope that the Press will always maintain it; but as I would not have that same Liberty degenerate into Licentiousness, nor that which is introduced for the Good of the Province be made an instrument to raise

59 University of Toronto, Fisher Library, Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides Collection, brc f 0072, “Quebeck: to the public = au public,” Broadside printed in the printing office of William Dunlap 1763.

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useless Broils and Disputes … I think every Thing that tends to promote Virtue and Industry, ought to be encouraged, as well as Papers that treat of Humour and Wit, as long as they keep within the Bounds of Decency and Morality.60

John Bushell, printer of the Halifax Gazette, not only published Y.Z.’s letter, but also wrote of his support for his principles, letting it stand as the de facto editorial policy for the paper:  “We are highly oblig’d to our Correspondent for the foregoing Cautions and Advice; and as they entirely agree with our Sentiments and settled Purposes, hope they will be taken proper Notice of, not only by us, but also such as incline to correspond with us for the future.”61 Propriety and liberty were thus enshrined early on as guiding principles of the colonial press, and maintained by successive printers in both Halifax and Quebec City. “burnt be the piece, forget the author’s name,” a poem excerpted in the Halifax Gazette in 1765 suggested, “that dares to hurt a good man’s honest fame / Alarms the virtuous breast with causeless fear, / Or draws from innocence a single tear.”62 Anthony Henry was polite, yet firm, in his rejection of material for his Nova-Scotia Gazette. “The printer would be glad to oblige his Correspondent who signs himself Q___ F___s by publishing his dream, but the Narrative is too long, uninterestting and extreamely incorrect.”63 In another case he observed: “As the piece signed Wm. Lovegrove contains reflections on respectable Characters, the Printer cannot be justified in inserting it. – The Press is free for all decent Publications.”64 Almost thirty years later, William Moore – the thespian-turned-publisher – also underscored the importance of propriety, observing in an editorial that “he will endeavour to render his paper a source of perpetual information, instruction, and entertainment, uncontaminated with scandal, undebased by ribbaldry, and free from virulence.”65 Indeed, he exhibited an atypical flamboyance in printing rejections to submissions to his Quebec Herald. In his weekly “To Correspondents” column, he would update readers upon the status of their contributions, submitting the worst to the “ordeal of the stove” to see if such pieces could be spared being “committed to the flames.”66 Among the judgements doled out by Moore he deemed the author Careless “not worth our care, nor do we think the public would 60 Halifax Gazette, 30 March 1752, 1. 61 Ibid. 62 Halifax Gazette, 26 December 1765, 4. 63 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 4 April 1775, 2. 64 Ibid., 29 February 1780, 3. 65 Quebec Herald, 23 November 1789, 4. 66 Ibid., 12 January 1789, 71.

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care what becomes of him.”67 Another submission entitled “Advice to Married Ladies” was found not only to be inappropriate for the public, but also unoriginal, prompting the printer to write that it “favours too much of smut, we imagine the copier, took it from the Rambler’s Magazine. – Our sincere wish is not to offend the eye or ear of modesty.”68 On one particularly bad week, Moore offered three stinging admonishments in a row for “Hissing Hot, [whom] we think luke warm, To Shoot at Folly, [who] seems to have blunt arrows and a weak bow, [and to] The Flight, [who] seems to soar beyond the bounds of reason.”69 Although tongue-in-cheek in its delivery, Moore’s editorial policy showed a sophisticated understanding of his readers and their expectations of the type of content the press should convey. Printers argued that part of that “well-regulated” tradition of printing in the “English dominions” was to ensure that a balance was maintained. As we saw in the first chapter, printers in Halifax and Quebec City were vocal in their declarations of impartiality. Other members of the colonial print community held the printers to their word and would react if the printer was seen as providing biased or unbalanced intelligence. In 1775, a letter penned under the name of Castigator Falsi clearly elucidated the normally tacit relationship between the press and the colonial reader in Halifax. Upset with what he saw as biased reports on the proceedings of the Grand Continental Congress in Philadelphia, he reminded the printer of the Nova-Scotia Gazette that “Between you, as publisher of a News-paper, on the one part, and your readers on the other, there exists a virtual contract.” As part of this unwritten yet mutually understood contract, the newspaper as “the tool of no party” had to remain unbiased and truthful. In Britain, the author continued, “you would be humbly called the servant of the public, in free America you may be stiled its trustee of intelligence. In this character, you are bound, to procure every possible information, to insert whatever comes to your hand, true, or probable, for, or against, any party, but to exclude, whatever bears ex facie the stamp of falsehood.”70 Indeed, the press was taken very seriously in the two capitals as a means to diffuse knowledge useful in informing and directing the reading public and, as such, it had to live up to the highest standards of that discerning public. As an article “To the Public” in the Halifax Gazette observed in 1765, newspapers were initially simple publications intended merely to

67 68 69 70

Ibid., 15 June 1789, 266. Ibid., 22 March 1790, 144. Ibid., 9 March 1789, 145. Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 5 September 1775, 1–2.

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amuse; however, “the People are since grown more curious and more capable of judging.”71 William Moore would frequently acknowledge in the Quebec Herald what he believed his responsibilities were as printer. In an account of the opening of a new theatre in Quebec in 1789, for example, he took great pains to describe the occurrences because “should the Printer omit observation, his Subscribers might accuse him of breach of promise, ‘to observe public transactions.’”72 Moore’s fears of public admonishment were not unfounded, as Halifax printer Anthony Henry had discovered in 1780. “I must confess that I was much aggravated by the great Neglect you have shewn for some weeks past, to give any Account of the following very interesting Events, which have been publicly known in this Town – And which I think must have come to your knowledge,” wrote a correspondent under the name a friend to Loyalty and Truth.73 The author then offered Henry a copy of an article from his own collection of London newspapers for publication that detailed the French navy engaging British forces in the West Indies. Although the author’s comments sounded very much like a reproach, he claimed to: “avoid reproaching you at this Time for not collecting these matters, expecting you will behave with more Assiduity and Faithfullness in future.”74 Readers in Halifax and Quebec City not only possessed a nuanced understanding of the press, they also voiced this understanding in print. The writings of A Commis, a frequent correspondent to the Quebec Herald, particularly illustrate this advanced comprehension of the way the press was believed to foster debate and public opinion.75 In March of 1790, A Commis found himself at the centre of a debate over a letter he had written supporting the development of colonial factories in the vein of the existing Forges de Saint-Maurice. “The only Manufactory of consequence,” he observed, “is that of stoves, bar iron, &c. near Three-Rivers, and which the present proprietors … deserve the greatest encouragement, as an example to others who may wish to commence Manufactories … which

71 Halifax Gazette, 14 November 1765, 4. 72 Quebec Herald, 9 February 1789, 111. Another example of Moore’s commitment to public expectations can be seen in a special supplement he printed concerning intelligence surrounding the French Revolution. Postscript to the Quebec Herald, 28 September 1789, 391–2. 73 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 11 January 1780, 3. 74 Ibid. 75 On 25 January 1790 the first contribution from A Commis to the Quebec Herald can be found in a letter suggesting several measures to eliminate debt by asking the city’s merchants to stop advancing credit in certain cases. On 18 March, A Commis wrote again, lamenting how many bachelors there were in the city and the challenges that they faced in finding a wife.

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must prove a great benefit to the Province.”76 A Commis’s plea for colonial industrialization, however, did not resonate with all readers. Some felt compelled to respond critically by emphasizing the perceived benefits of the existing mercantilist system with Britain and its proposed expansion to the factories of the United States of America.77 Others questioned A Commis’s ability as a mere clerk to comment on such issues and further ridiculed him as a bachelor with as poor a prospect of becoming a merchant as of finding a wife.78 A Commis did not answer the insults of his detractors in his response. Instead he outlined his philosophy on the nature of public opinion and attacked what he believed was the irrational style of his critics. “When a person ventures to advance an opinion publicly, on any political question,” he calmly wrote: “I look upon him as under the obligation of supporting it, by sound reasoning and applicable remarks … and of refuting … the arguments of all … against him; especially if his opinion be founded on mature deliberation, and a conviction that he is in the right.” Confident in his own abilities, A Commis nevertheless reserved the greatest respect for readers and “the criticism of the public, who have an undoubted right to judge and determine the fate of every production of this kind.”79 Tellingly, what was more worrisome than any particular insult was the idea that his writing, and the formative processes behind it, would not withstand public scrutiny. The newspaper was a versatile and valued medium of communication in the British Atlantic during the second half of the eighteenth century. After its mid-century introduction in Halifax and Quebec City, it quickly became an important herald of news, method of social regulation, and forum of elite sociability. Printers, readers, and contributors forming the print community in the two capitals exhibited a sophisticated understanding of the newspaper and its importance in the expression of opinion. For the members of this informal group the boundaries between the realms of the print imagination and the physical world were blurred. That is to say, print information and opinion was perceived to inform, or even change, the everyday lives of readers. Print was used to convey official edicts, dispel rumour, and advise the public of perceived wrongdoing and excesses. Members in the colonial print community turned particularly to newspapers to communicate traditional British norms or the latest fashions, including such concepts – characteristic of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era – as useful knowledge, tolerance, and the use of reason in public.

76 77 78 79

Quebec Herald, 25 March 1790, 141. See letters by Mercator and Scriba, Quebec Herald 1 April 1790, 150–1. Ibid., 29 March 1790, 149–50 and 12 April 1790, 167. Ibid., 19 April 1790, 174–5

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4 Enlightened Print: Popular Science and Useful Knowledge in the Service of the Public During the 1790s Joseph Peters, the postmaster at Halifax, would take detailed records of the meteorological conditions in the capital to be sent to the Rev. Dr Jeremy Belknap for the use of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Massachusetts-born Peters would also include with his weather reports copies of the local newspapers for Belknap and other Society members to peruse. On 11 February 1796, he wrote to Belknap and communicated his eagerness to continue his meteorological work, writing “I shall endeavour to continue those observations and according to your request send them quarterly.” However, the cashstrapped Peters1 was less than eager to keep purchasing newspapers for the Society as Halifax’s three weekly papers, “being constantly sent to my Office for Country Customers … can [be] read without injury to any person, or expense to myself.” Not to close the door on the subject altogether, he quickly added “should your Society wish to have any one or more of those papers subscribed for, and sent to you, as opportunities may offer, I shall chearfully execute the Commission in so doing.” While unable to continue paying for three newspaper subscriptions for the Historical Society in Boston, Peters concluded that he would nonetheless be happy to purchase Belknap’s next anticipated book: “If your 2 Vol. of Biography is published, or if not as soon as it shall be, I shall be greatly Obliged by your sending me Two Copies thereof, and at the same time to name the price, which I will find means to transmit by the first safe conveyance.”2 Belknap was ultimately unable to fulfill Peters’s request, because he died before his second volume on the lives of famous

1 Fingard, “Peters, Joseph,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume iv, www. biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 2 mhs, Ms. N–693 MS Meteorological observations (by Joseph Peters) 1793–1798, Letter from Joseph Peters to Jeremy Belknap, 11 February 1796.

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Americans was published.3 Literacy, the diffusion of knowledge, and sociability were all central to Joseph Peters’s life. Peters was a veteran of the Seven Years’ War who settled in Halifax after the conflict and became a schoolmaster in 1773.4 Twelve years later, he was officially appointed Postmaster General of Nova Scotia, overseeing the receipt of transatlantic mail and directing its distribution throughout the colony. Peters liked to be informed and to observe the world around him, two traits that proved useful for both his official position and his private life. Little is known of Peters’s connection with Belknap, other than what is revealed in the few documents and letters he sent to the American scholar. It is clear, however, that Peters relished the opportunities that his position as postmaster afforded to read the various newspapers that passed through his office. His desire to purchase Belknap’s book, in spite of his limited means, underscores the importance of print to him and the valuable relationships that could be forged through its consumption. Peters’s actions are in line with those of others in both Halifax and Quebec City who comprised the colonial print community. It was a community that used print to shape colonial society at large as well as the nature of its upper echelons in the capitals. A community that believed equally in the importance of the direct measurement of the weather as well as the consultation of the social barometer that the newspaper provided.5 And a community that participated in a greater transatlantic print culture and valued the ability of print to diffuse knowledge and form opinion. From the beginnings of the press in Halifax and Quebec City printers presented their productions as inherently beneficial to their readers. As the article “To the Public” explained to readers of the Halifax Gazette in 1765, newspapers were advantageous for several reasons: Newspapers, not only convey Instruction, Amusement, but when properly conducted, secure us the Liberty of the Press – There is another great Advantage which the Increase of Newspapers has procured us: Ignorance is not so prevalent;

3 For more on Belknap see Lawson, The American Plutarch:  Jeremy Belknap and the Historian’s Dialogue with the Past. 4 Peters writes in an advertisement for his school that his decision to become a schoolmaster was prompted by the several requests he had received to teach after the death of prominent schoolmaster Daniel Shatford. The curriculum he observes is “reading and Writing English, Bookkeeping, practical Geometry, Mensuration of Superficies and Solids, Trigonometry and the Art of Navigation.” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 29 June 1773, 3. 5 The connection between the scientific observation and the social obsession with the weather in the eighteenth century is articulated in Golinski, British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment.

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News Papers have given People a Taste for reading; this occasions all useful Knowledge to be cultivated and encouraged.6

Of course, not all knowledge conveyed by newspapers was useful. One need look no further for proof than the popular eighteenth-century periodicals such as the Tatler and Spectator that took gossipy town talk from the realm of the spoken word and moved it to the page. The newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City had their fair share of gossip, hearsay, and town talk as well. However, printers in the capitals – often underscoring the importance of the freedom of the press – made a concerted effort to present their productions as diffusing useful, modernizing, and British knowledge. They presented this “useful knowledge” as that which was: (1) truly useful (i.e. how to avoid poisonous plants, resuscitate drown bodies, understand the tides, or make maple sugar), (2) entertainingly useful (i.e. the expression of math problems, astronomic observations, and the oddities of the natural world), or (3) culturally useful (information that was popular in Britain therefore of interest to Britons abroad). For example, the destruction of printer Samuel Neilson’s office by fire in 1789 gave him a renewed zeal to conduct his press in such a beneficial manner. “This trying occasion,” he observed, “will ever induce me to exert myself to render the Gazette of public utility, and in every respect to devote my time and attention to the service of my generous employers and of the society in general.”7 According to Neilson, his exertions as printer were undertaken for the benefit both of those advertisers and subscribers whom he called his “employers”8 and of the greater public. Indeed, this was an ideology of societal improvement and civic betterment that he carried into the development of his Quebec Almanac where he wrote to readers in 1791, “we trust that the enlightened friends of literature will lend their influence in encouraging the productions of the Press.” The press, he concluded, using a metaphor that would resonate with the province’s inhabitants, “must ever be regarded to bear the same relation to the culture of the mind as the plow bears to that of the earth.”9 Some of the deepest furrows in the culture of the mind were arguably the product of the diffusion of “useful knowledge,” and the facilitators of this public conversation were printers. 6 Halifax Gazette, 14 November 1765, 4. 7 Quebec Herald, 28 December 1789, 45. 8 Neilson was the nephew and apprentice to William Brown. After Brown’s death on 22 March 1789, he inherited the newspaper and became its sole owner. See Gervais, “Brown, William,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume iv, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 9 The Quebec Almanack for the Year 1791 (Quebec: Samuel Neilson, 1790), 36.

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The cultivation and communication of “useful knowledge” became a common preoccupation in the latter half of the eighteenth century throughout the British transatlantic world.10 This type of practical erudition found a great resonance with the public during the era of the Enlightenment. Some more traditional observers saw academic study as the only means to impart knowledge and encourage true scholarship. This attitude can be seen amongst the governors of King’s Academy in Windsor – the first public grammar school in Nova Scotia – who saw the importance of the institution in its ability to communicate useful knowledge. “Science, in a new country, is like a tender plant, removed to an unfriendly soil and eliminated. Much care and attention are required, before the roots strike deep, and the plant itself can shoot out with vigour. And … this Academy is designed to diffuse principles of useful Knowledge, and is replete with many advantages to the community at large.”11 However, the less traditionally minded, and particularly printers, argued that useful knowledge could be gained in many places both inside and out of the classroom. An anecdote on education published in 1791 by William Moore in his Quebec Herald underscores this alternate view: A gentleman who has a family has adopted a method of rendering every incident of their lives contributory to useful knowledge. No tea, sugar, coffee, butchers’ meat, &c. are permitted to be eat, unless the boys can give an account of each article, the place from which it is imported, its manufacture, uses, price, &c. &c. &c. – This he calls imbibing knowledge and digesting instruction.12

Printers were vocal in arguing for the importance of the press in relating useful knowledge that could be observed as the practical application of  theory – the distillation of systems for use in common, everyday situations. The public encouragement of science and of the observation of natural phenomena can be found in the colonial press from its beginnings in both Halifax and Quebec City. Scientific observations of a practical or curious nature were commonplace in newspapers of the two capitals. These included reports in the Halifax Gazette of smallpox in colonial centres such as Boston and Montreal, highlighting the importance of public

10 Reinhold, “The Quest for ‘Useful Knowledge’ in Eighteenth-century America,” 108–32; Emerson, “The Scottish Enlightenment and the End of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh,” 33–66; Eamon, “Finding Enlightenment at the National Archives of Canada”; Gascoigne, Joseph Banks and the English Enlightenment, 29–56, 185–236; Burns, Science and Technology in Colonial America. 11 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 10 February 1789, 3. 12 Quebec Herald, 21 February 1791, 112.

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inoculations,13 or the story excerpted in 1753 from the Newcastle Journal of “a Curious Case of a Gentleman who has entirely recovered his Speech by the Use of the electrical machine alone.”14 Later, Halifax Gazette printer Anthony Henry made tidal, meteorological, and astronomical observations a requisite part of not only his yearly almanac, but also his weekly newspaper.15 Along with numerous references to philosophers of historical note, colonial publications also carried stories, anecdotes, and references to contemporary personages such as the American polymath Benjamin Franklin (especially at the time of his death),16 the Scottish physician William Cullen (1710–1790),17 Cullen’s pupil Joseph Black (1728–1799),18 natural philosopher William Smellie (1740–1795),19 the astronomer William Herschel (1738–1822),20 economic theorist Adam Smith,21 Royal Society president and explorer Sir Joseph Banks (1743– 1820),22 and French Jesuit explorer and natural philosopher Lahontan

13 For examples see Halifax Gazette, 23 March 1752, 2, 30 March 1752, 2, 18 April 1752, 1, and 16 May 1752, 2; Nova Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 16 January 1770, 21; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 4 July 1775, 2 and 8 August 1775, 4. 14 Halifax Gazette, 6 January 1753, 1. 15 See the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, starting in 1769. 16 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 17 May 1774, 1; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 19 August 1788, 3; Quebec Herald, 7 September 1789, 366; Quebec Herald, 15 March 1790, 135; Quebec Herald, 13 May 1790, 197; Quebec Herald, 8 July 1790, 259; “An Essay on Luxury [By Dr Franklin],” Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 2 (1790): 93–5; Quebec Herald, 9 August 1790, 300–1; Quebec Herald, 2 September 1790, 322; Quebec Herald, 13 September 1790, 343–4; “Hints by the Late Doctor Franklin,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 4 (1790): 272–3; Quebec Herald, 25 October 1790, 392; “A Letter from the Late Dr. Franklin, Addressed to the Authors of the Paris Journal,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 5 (1790): 341–2; Quebec Herald, 27 December 1790, 46; Quebec Herald, 10 March 1791, 126; “An Allegory: By Doctor Franklin,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 4, no. 3 (1791): 150–2; “Meteorological Conjectures [By Dr Franklin],” Nova-Scotia Magazine 4, no. 6 (1791): 323– 4; “Letter from Dr. Franklin to Thomas Ronayne, Esq. at Corke, concerning the Electricity of the Fogs in Ireland,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 4, no.10 (1791): 606–7; “On the Slave Trade [By Dr Franklin],” Nova-Scotia Magazine 4, no. 12 (1791): 722–4; “The Morals of Chess [By Dr Franklin],” Nova-Scotia Magazine 5, no. 1 (1792): 38–40. 17 “A Letter on the Utility of Inoculation [Addressed to the Editor of the European Magazine],” Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, no. 4 (November 1789): 342–3. 18 Quebec Herald, 15 February 1790, 99. 19 “Extracts from Smellie’s Philosophical Natural History,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 6 (December 1790): 436–8. 20 “Dr. Herschell has discovered a seventh satellite,” Quebec Herald, 15 February 1790, 99; “An Inhabitant of Herschel: A Vision,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 4, no. 1 (1791): 43–6. 21 Quebec Herald, 20 July 1789, 308. 22 For examples see “Letter of Sir Joseph Banks to the Royal Society,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, no. 3 (September 1789): 169–70; Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, no. 4 (October 1789): 274–9; “Report of Sir Joseph Banks,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 2, no. 1 (January 1790): 41–3; “On the Production of Ambergris,” Quebec Magazine 1, no. 1 (August 1792): 28–30.

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(1666–1715?),23 as well as historians such as Abbé Raynal (1713–1796)24 and historian William Robertson.25 The press could remove ideas from the purview of the academies and then easily abridge and relate them, in the vernacular, to the literate colonial public. Printers in the capitals of Nova Scotia and Quebec advertised their role as colonial improvers, declaring their intentions for all to see in the subtitles and mastheads of their publications. As we have seen, Samuel Neilson presented his Quebec Magazine (first published in 1792) as a “Useful and Entertaining Repository of Science, Morals, History, Politics, &c. Particularly Adapted for the Use of British America.” Likewise, the full title of Anthony Henry’s Nova-Scotia Chronicle boasted, in 1769, “the freshest Advices, both Foreign and Domestic, with a Variety of other Matter, useful, instructive, and entertaining.”26 The first edition of Moore’s Quebec Herald in 1788 began with a quotation from Horace: “Quid verum atque decens curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc sum: condo & compon.” The phrase (also found in the masthead of Joseph Addison’s Spectator) translates as “What is right and seemly is my study and pursuit, and to that I am wholly given.”27 Moore’s original subtitle for the Quebec Herald illustrates once again the importance of social improvement to printers in the capitals as well as the belief in the value of British literary exemplars – such as those found in the pages of the Spectator – in that process of improvement. In their publications, printers not only excerpted local and transatlantic articles on natural and moral philosophy, they encouraged colonial participation in charity, education, science, and the use of reason in public. Within a few months of its inaugural issue John Bushell, the printer of the Halifax Gazette, excerpted an article “Of Spectres and Apparitions”

23 Quebec Herald, 20 July 1789, 308. 24 “A History of Quebec from Abbé Raynal,” Quebec Herald, 24 November 1788, 1; Quebec Herald, April 1789, 202; “extracts relative to the history of british america, account of canada: Chiefly from the Abbe Raynal,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, no. 2 (1789): 81–7; Nova-Scotia Magazine 1, no. 3 (1789): 161–4; “Historical Account of Nova-Scotia [From Abbé Raynal.],” Nova-Scotia Magazine 2, no. 2 (1790): 82–7; Quebec Herald, 7 January 1790, 50. 25 For examples see Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 27 March 1770, 98; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 10 November 1772, 3. 26 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 3 January 1769, 7. 27 This abbreviated use of Horace’s quotation is also used in Spectator 16, 19 March 1711. What both the publishers of the Herald and the Spectator edit from this quotation is the beginning phrase which reads: “Nunc itaque et verses et cetera ludicra pono” or “So now I lay aside my verses and all other toys.” In the case of William Moore’s use of the quotation in the Herald, he includes an additional two words, not found in the Spectator: “condo & compono” which roughly translate as a “cache (or home) and collection.”

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that detailed the imposture of several famous supernatural events in Britain. Bushell had previously ignored local gossip concerning various supernatural occurrences, refusing to give any quarter to such stories in his paper. However, after what he believed was an escalation of irrational and damaging behaviour, he felt compelled to address the issue. In a rare preface to a featured essay, Bushell wrote: As there is considerable Talk in Town of a Ghost, Spectre, or Apparition, said to be seen by a Man on board of Schooner belonging to this Place, then on the Banks of a fishing voyage, which struck such a Panic on the whole Company belonging to her, that they left their Business before they had compleated their Cargoe, to the no small Damage of the Owners; and as the more credulous Part of Mankind are too apt to receive such Notions as true, we apprehend the publishing the following Piece at this Time might not be judg’d unreasonable.28

Colonial newspapers encouraged the public to use reason in how it viewed its environment. Bushell dissuaded his readers from becoming part of the “more credulous Part of Mankind,” and his assistant Anthony Henry later continued the tradition of explaining the natural and dispelling superstition. Henry would frequently report on tides and severe weather and offer explanations for rare occurrences such as the sightings of comets. In 1769, Henry tracked the progress of the Great Comet of that year.29 “The Comet observed here for several Days past, now rises about 1 o’ Clock, and may be very plainly seen after two o’ Clock in the Morning, about 15 ° S.E. of the Seven Stars.”30 Not only did he give co-ordinates and times for readers to view the comet, but in the following months he excerpted several articles on the science behind comets including “the minutes of American Philosophical Society … for promoting Usefull Knowledge.”31 28 Halifax Gazette, 2 May 1752, 1. 29 The periodic comet later known as Halley’s Comet appeared ten years earlier in 1759. This comet was more than likely the one discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier (1730–1817), who had also confirmed Halley’s prediction a decade earlier. Messier’s Comet, or the Great Comet of 1769, was first seen on 8 August 1769. 30 Nova Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 4 September 1769, 287. 31 Serialized in two subsequent papers was an essay under the title “From the Pennsylvania Journal, September 21, 1769. From the Minutes of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge,” see Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 7 November 1769, 355–6 and Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 14 November 1769, 363–4. Also, Henry excerpted an article from the New-York Gazette of September 25, 1769 entitled, “A Philosophical description of comets,” Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 21 November 1769, 373–4. A year later, another article on comets appears entitled “Some Remarks &c. on the Comet from a Hartford Paper,” see Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 28 August 1770, 279.

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The importance of the diffusion of useful knowledge by printers was no less evident in Quebec. Even before the publishing of the Quebec Gazette, its printers in 1763 were advocating the utility of the newspaper in the colony’s uniquely bilingual environment. William Brown and Thomas Gilmore, cognizant of the new political situation of Quebec within the British Empire after 1763, argued that their newspaper, written in both French and English, would be “the most effectual Means of bringing about a thorough Knowledge of the English and French Language to those of the two Nations now happily united in one in this Part of the World, by which Means they will be enabled to converse with, and communicate their sentiments to each other as Brethren, and carry on their different Transactions in Life with ease and Satisfaction.”32 As this example illustrates, printers saw useful knowledge as ever changing, and relative to the environment in which it was given. In Quebec, the ability to speak both English and French was deemed extremely useful, and Brown and Gilmore saw their newspaper as a vehicle to promote this practical knowledge. It was an issue of grave local importance that compelled Moore to publish a “Caution to the Public” in the Quebec Herald in 1789 concerning a perceived ignorance of the poisonous plants in city. Moore not only took the opportunity to diffuse useful knowledge to his readers, but also to comment on the importance of such knowledge and value of the press in relating it. “It is the indispensable duty of every individual,” Moore wrote, “as far as his knowledge and experience may lead, to publish, for the good of society, any circumstance, which, from ignorance, inattention, or accident, may affect the life of a fellow creature.”33 Moore noticed that children, who were “entirely incapable of judging of the difference of structure in young plants,” had been harvesting plants from the rock outcroppings of the city and then selling them to “such of the inhabitants as, from an idea of their antiscorbutic virtues, are induced to buy them.” Moore recommended that no one should ingest such plants since “neither the culler of the plants, nor the purchaser of the salad, is in any degree certain that there are not young sprouts of hemlock which (as the following cases sufficiently prove) are extremely poisonous mixed with the other ingredients.”34 Thus, Moore saw it as his civic duty as a publisher to alert the public – those with a capacity to judge – to the danger that

32 University of Toronto, Fisher Library, Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides Collection, brc f 0072, “Quebeck: to the public = au public,” Broadside printed in the printing office of William Dunlap 1763. 33 Quebec Herald, 8 June 1789, 254. 34 Ibid.

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poisonous plants presented. His doing so underscores the perceived importance of the press in relating such knowledge. As we have seen printers, as part of the colonial print community, promoted useful knowledge in all of its branches. Readers, following the encouragement of printers, asked for the republishing of interesting and colonially applicable articles that they had read elsewhere. By doing so, these readers demonstrated an awareness of a larger print culture, and the value of the application of this print information to colonial situations. It is perhaps not surprising that such articles included a description of the nature of and treatment for hydrophobia (rabies),35 various methods of resuscitating drowned bodies,36 or tips on the latest and most profitable agricultural practices.37 Not only did readers use the newspapers, and later magazines, to ask that articles replete with useful knowledge be reprinted, they used the print medium to pose questions concerning science, history, and particularly mathematics that encouraged fellow readers to respond.38 In justifying his submission of a mathematical problem to the Quebec Gazette in 1788, the correspondent A Citizen observed that: “The following question (in Vulgar Arithmetic) is offered to the Youth of Quebec, as a stimulus to their further study of that noble science of numbers, on which, so many branches of usefull and necessary Knowledge depend: And (perhaps) maybe not be unworthy the investigation of their Teachers.”39 As both the correspondents A Friend and A Citizen highlight, the public communication and discussion of useful knowledge was perceived by some in the colonial print community as the duty of all subjects in the capitals. The knowledge of agricultural science, in particular, was a preoccupation amongst readers in both Halifax and Quebec City. Indeed, agricultural improvement was a civic-minded pursuit that enjoyed a wide popularity throughout the late eighteenth-century British Atlantic. Henry 35 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 25 April 1786, 2–3. 36 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 17 August 1773, 4; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 28 March 1780, 1; “Description of a Machine for restoring Respiration to Persons Drowned, or Otherwise Suffocated [Invented by M. Roland, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Paris],” Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 3 (1790). 37 Quebec Herald, 18 January 1790, 69; Quebec Herald, 18 March 1790, 135; Quebec Herald, 5 August 1790, 294; Nova-Scotia Magazine 5, no. 2 (1792): 90–2. 38 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 7 February 1775, 3; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 21 March 1775, 2; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 4 April 1775, 2; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 9 May 1775, supplement; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 19 January 1779, 4; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 11 May 1779, 4; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 19 October 1779, 4; Quebec Herald, 23 March 1789, 166–7; Quebec Herald, 16 March 1789, 149. 39 Quebec Gazette, 10 January 1788, 3.

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Home, Lord Kames – a central thinker and benefactor of the Scottish Enlightenment – remarked to the president of the Royal Society in one of his treatises on agriculture: “agriculture justly claims to be the chief of arts … combining deep philosophy with useful practice. The members of your Society, cannot employ their talents more profitably for their country, or more honourably for themselves, than in improving and promoting an art, to which Britain is fundamentally indebted for the figure it makes all the world over.”40 Scotland, in particular, became a hotbed for the study of agriculture with the famous physician William Cullen becoming one of Scotland’s premier researchers, lecturing and publishing in the field of agricultural science.41 Improvements to agriculture were viewed as an appropriately modern, scientific, and British means to shape colonial society. In Quebec the seriousness of the undertaking of an agriculture society was underscored by the involvement of Dr John Mervin Nooth, the Edinburgh-trained physician and member of London’s Royal Society.42 Nooth would have been familiar with both the writings of Home and Cullen. He was elected a member of the Agriculture Society’s directors, and was regularly called upon to summarize the current academic literature for the governor and the Agriculture Society.43 In addition, he was regularly called upon to examine various seeds in order to assess their worthiness or to “pronounce whether they are still in a state of vegetation.”44 Nooth had also published several of his own scientific papers in England45 and was a contemporary of some of the greatest scientific minds of the eighteenth century – as evidenced by the fact that his candidacy into the Royal Society was supported by both Benjamin Franklin and the renowned Scottish physician William Hunter (1718– 1783).46 When in London, Nooth participated regularly in the Royal

40 Home, The Gentleman Farmer. Being an Attempt to Improve Agriculture, By subjecting it to the Test of Rational Principles, cited in Withers, “William Cullen’s Agricultural Lectures and Writings and the Development of Agricultural Science in Eighteenth-century Scotland,” 146. 41 Ibid., 152. 42 See Cochrane, “Notes on the measures adopted by Government in 1775 to 1786 to check the St. Paul’s Bay Disease;” Nadeau, “Un savant anglais à Québec à la fin du XVIIIe siècle”; Zuck, “Dr. Nooth and his Apparatus.” 43 banqq, P  450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 5, Minutes of Agriculture Society of Quebec, 1789–1792, 28 July 1789. 44 banqq, P  450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 5, Minutes of Agriculture Society of Quebec, 1789–1792, 21 December 1789. 45 His most notably paper being: John Mervin Nooth, “The Description of an Apparatus for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air; and of the Manner of Conducting That Process,” Philosphical Transactions of the Royal Society (1775). 46 The Royal Society, London, GB 117, Certificates of Election and Candidature, Nooth, John Mervin, EC / 1773 / 34.

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Society meetings, even bringing fellow colonist and future Chief Justice of Quebec William Smith as a guest on occasion.47 Nooth’s association with the Agriculture Society undoubtedly enhanced its credibility as a modern scientific organization. Agriculture, which was – as one correspondent to the Quebec Herald observed – “that most natural, the most useful, and among the most honourable … employments … is now thought a subject not unworthy the attention of Philosophers, – In Britain the genuine spirit of experimental agriculture begins to diffuse itself with a zeal and rapidity that promises soon to establish this science on the most solid foundations.”48 Similarly, a letter in the Nova-Scotia Magazine in 1790 penned by Columella, who was (or fashioned himself as) a farmer, argued: “sentiments of the importance of agriculture, are confirmed by the judgment and practice of the wisest nations.” “I am one of the few farmers,” he continued, “who have joined theory and reading, to the practical part of this useful art.” Exhibiting his knowledge as a learned and well-read farmer, Columella further argued that agricultural science was a hallmark of every great ancient empire concluding with Britain. “In Great-Britain, the most unwearied exertions have been made, for a century to promote this useful art,” he observed, concluding that “the result is such as might be naturally expected – the farmer is amply repaid for his labour; the nation is abundantly supplied with provision, which give a spring to commerce and manufactures; and great quantities of provisions, of every kind, are annually exported.”49 Whether Columella was truthful in his assertion of being a farmer is less important than the idea that he was trying to convey. For him, a farmer should be learned and attuned to print knowledge of agricultural improvements. In particular – as both Columella and the author of the letter to the Quebec Herald illustrate – this type of improvement was beneficial to society and inherently British, two prime reasons that it should be promoted in the colonies. Although the term Enlightenment would not be used to describe the movement in the English language until decades later,50 by the end of the eighteenth century members of the colonial print community also appealed to the new “spirit” that had emerged in the transatlantic press in their efforts to form a British colonial elite. A letter to the editor of the Nova-Scotia Magazine, prefacing a submission of letters between William

47 Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume i, 222–3. 48 Quebec Herald, 5 August 1790, 294. 49 “To the Secretary of the Society for promoting Agriculture in Nova-Scotia,” NovaScotia Magazine 2, no. 4 (1790): 243–4. 50 Schmidt, What Is Enlightenment?, ix–xi.

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Penn and John Tillotson, requested in 1790 that “as the spirit which at present prevails so universally in Europe, is establishing that Right of Mankind, Toleration in Religion, you will oblige some of your subscribers by inserting the following letters in your Magazine – They shew that even at the time when the majority were against it, there were some of the greatest men who dared to be its advocates.”51 Similar sentiments could also be found in Quebec. In 1794, the Rev. Alexander Spark, Presbyterian minister and editor of the Quebec Magazine,52 remarked that the public’s interest in the new monthly publication could be seen by the high number of subscribers. He also believed that his magazine was well suited for the age. “Upon the whole,” he observed, “we think that few periods of History have ever appeared more favourable or inviting to an undertaking of this kind than the present time – more fertile in subjects fit for the animadversion of the Statesman or Philosopher – or more productive of incidents worthy of being recorded. By the Spirit of Enquiry (which in no age was ever more awake) new discoveries in History and antiquities, and improvements in Philosophy, are expected almost every day.53 This spirit, transmitted through print, was intended for members of the colonial print community. It was provided to shape or confirm readers’ opinions with the proper views on civic formation, the value of reason and tolerance, the importance of self and societal improvement, sociability, and charity. Writing to the Quebec Herald in 1790, A Friend observed the importance of this global spirit of improvement and how exactly the medium of the press could be employed to effect change. “In a Society of civilized people,” the correspondent observed, “every good citizen is anxious of informing himself of any useful subject, of which he is unacquainted; or of informing others in proportion to the knowledge himself possesses.” Submitting questions to the newspaper for the response of other readers, A Friend argued, was a particularly good means to effect change. However, no matter the method employed, the print medium was key. The missive concluded that “it is in consequence of such harmony and mutual efforts only that each member participates of the good qualities of all the rest and that societies advance to the knowledge and adoption of what is proper, and

51 Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 5 (1790): 343–4. 52 Rev. Dr Alexander Spark (1762?–1819) was an important force in early Presbyterianism in Quebec. He promoted colonial charity, was an amateur scientist, and played a key role in the operations of the Quebec Gazette during the 1790s. See Clark, “The Early Presbyterianism of Quebec under Dr. Spark”; and Lambert, “Spark, Alexander,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 53 The Quebec Magazine 1, no. 1 (1792): i.

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reject what is improper.”54 This new “spirit,” while also demonstrated in France and the German states, was framed in the newspapers of the capitals as being inherently British. Indeed, progress, civic good, moderation, and tolerance in the predominately English-language discourse were all perceived as British characteristics. Many colonists, disregarding any nationalistic overtones, undoubtedly supported these ideals for their own merit. However, in the press of Halifax and Quebec City this spirit was a British one, a spirit of improvement and inquiry with which readers could personally engage through the vehicle of print. the printers’ use of the almanac as a tool for useful knowledge Printers in Halifax and Quebec City particularly viewed the almanac as an essential means to diffuse useful knowledge to colonial readers.55 Almanacs offered a yearly calendar, listing the phases of the moon and general astrological and meteorological predictions. Because of the calendar format and the publications’ relatively small physical dimensions, almanacs often took on the secondary purpose of a diary. Almanacs offered short essays on natural philosophy, amusing anecdotes, and home remedies, as well as moral maxims and aphorisms. Other practical information such as the Civil List, lists of surgeons, justices of the peace, judges, constables, and surveyors, tables for the calculation of duties, and currency exchange were also found in almanacs. As the long title of the 1772 Nova-Scotia Calendar, Or An Almanack revealed, the publication contained a cornucopia of practical information including: “The Eclipses of the Luminaries, Sun and Moon’s Rising and Setting, Moon’s Place, Time of High-Water; Lunations, Aspects, Spring Tides, Judgement of the Weather, Feasts and Fasts of the Church, Sittings of several Courts and Sessions in the Province of Nova-Scotia … Prognosticks, of the Weather. Infallible Signs of Rain, &c. taken by observations of the Planets … A Collection of select Aphorisms. The Art of Printing a Poem. On the liberty of the Press … & Sundry useful Receipts.”56 The almanac offered a compendium of useful local information that could be appreciated by merchants, farmers, sailors, soldiers, and bureaucrats alike.

54 A Friend, Quebec Herald, 5 April 1790, 158. 55 For a general overview see Dondertman and Donnelly, “Almanacs,” in History of the Book in Canada, ed. Fleming et al., 271–5. 56 Nova-Scotia Calendar, or an Almanack for the Year of the Christian Æra 1772 (Halifax: Henry and Fletcher, 1771).

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Such was the popularity of almanacs that literate colonists purchased imported versions when domestically produced versions were not available. For example, advertisements for the sale of the Ames almanac (published in Boston) can be found in the Halifax Gazette as early as 1754.57 Although based on the Boston astrological calculations, his almanac could be found throughout the British American colonies, including Nova Scotia.58 Most printers in the capitals, however, produced an almanac. The first almanac to be proposed in either Quebec or Halifax was the 1766 Almanac de cabinet envisaged by Quebec printers William Brown and Thomas Gilmore. But it was never produced, confounded in part by the increased costs for paper in the wake of the Stamp Act.59 Records from the Quebec Gazette printing office observe that in the following year Brown and Gilmore did produce their almanac “fitted to the Latitude of Quebec,” though no copies of it have survived.60 In addition to their annual production in French and English, Brown and Gilmore also produced an “Indian Kalendar” written in the Montagnais language and distributed by local Roman Catholic missionaries.61 In Halifax, Anthony Henry started his English-language Nova-Scotia Calendar in 1768,62 later published with Robert Fletcher in the 1770s, and started printing the German language Der Neuschottländische Calendar in 1788.63 John Howe, upon setting up shop in Halifax, printed an almanac in 1780, as did William Moore in 1788 after the founding of his Quebec Herald. Samuel and later John Neilson, following in the tradition of William Brown, continued and expanded the Quebec Almanac. Almanacs give a strong indication of a printer’s interest in science and, consequently, varied greatly in size and content. For example, the almanacs produced by Anthony Henry and Robert Fletcher in Halifax and those by William Moore and the Neilsons in Quebec were quite large, often numbering over one hundred pages, and included excerpts from current literary works or discoveries in natural philosophy. On the other hand, the almanacs produced by William Brown in Quebec in the 1770s and 1780s were relatively small, more concise, and did not include as many essays on 57 Halifax Gazette, 19 January 1754, 2. 58 For more on the life of Nathaniel Ames and his impact upon colonial culture see McNamara, “Nearest a Kin to Fisher”; and Pencak, “Nathaniel Ames, Sr. and the Political Culture of Provincial New England,” 141–58. 59 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 27. 60 Ibid., 49. 61 Ibid., 59. 62 Ibid., 52. 63 Henry produced this almanac for at least ten years, see ibid., 233, 471.

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science as did those of his contemporaries. The almanacs of Henry and Fletcher, Moore, and particularly the Neilsons not only featured excerpted items believed to be of public interest, but also encouraged the public use of reason and a philosophical approach to daily matters. In explaining the reasoning behind the new, expanded Quebec Almanac of 1792, Samuel Neilson presented – in no uncertain terms – what he believed to be the nature of the almanac and the press, and their purposes in society. His observations illustrate how the almanac was believed to have expanded upon its original purpose to become an invaluable tool of reason embodying the spirit of Enlightenment on the colonial periphery. In the frontispiece of the almanac the first thing that greeted the reader was a detailed woodcut of three men working a printing press titled “Progress of Reason and Propagation of the Arts and Sciences / Progres de la Raison et Propagation des Arts et des Sciences.”64 In case that first image was in any way unclear, Neilson’s preface endeavoured to illuminate his readers: The matter which should form the contents of an Almanac has constantly varied in all countries, and seems in a great measure arbitrary, however they all agree that it ought chiefly to consist in a Calendar for the measure of time, which being dependent on the motion of the heavenly bodies makes an Almanac so much of the Science of Astronomy as is necessary for the regulation of human affairs. But this like most other institutions from time to time has been thought susceptible of improvement, and that additional advantage might arise to the public by rendering its utility more extensive, which has since become the common object of both the makers and purchasers … another portion has been very fitly appropriated to objects of general Utility, such as short sketches of political, moral, or scientific truths.65

Thus, according to Neilson, the scope of the almanac had grown over the course of the eighteenth century. What had once been a mere tool, a calendar and means of organization, had transformed into a indispensible tool for rational improvement, designed to inform and enlighten the colonial reader through daily exposure to the various branches of science.

64 “Frontispiece,” The Quebec Almanack for the Year 1792 (Quebec: Samuel Neilson, 1791). 65 “Almanac, 1791 [sic],” The Quebec Almanack for the Year 1792 (Quebec: Samuel Neilson, 1791).

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4.1  The inherent power of the press. This frontispiece, depicting an earlier era of print production, reflected the publisher’s belief in a universal and inherent power of the press to diffuse knowledge, encourage rational discussion, and foster artistic expression. Almanach de Québec, 1792, by Samuel Neilson.

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print periodicals: the case of the Nova-Scotia and Quebec Magazine Domestically produced magazines were a relatively late arrival in both Halifax and Quebec City. Until their advent, the only domestic print source that addressed useful knowledge and the various branches of science were newspapers and almanacs. However, the founding of the Nova-Scotia Magazine and Quebec Magazine in the post-Revolutionary War era marked a brief though concerted and ambitious effort to promote both science and literature. The arrival of loyalists in the decade following the American Revolution, it has been argued, introduced new social, political, and economic pressures in Halifax and Quebec City. Thousands of immigrants passing through the capital cities led to commodity shortages, inflation, unemployment, and in particular a lack of lucrative government patronage positions.66 From a literary perspective, however, this influx also brought British American writers and poets, and increased the numbers of the reading public.67 The Quebec and Nova-Scotia Magazines initially capitalized upon the increase of readers in the colonies and their capitals. In some quarters, however, vernacular newspaper and magazine productions were regarded as being lesser than the more scholarly book format. In response to this negative perception printers were forced to go on the defensive. In 1758, the editors of the Annual Register, one of the many magazine titles carried by Halifax bookseller Robert Fletcher,68 opined that “some of the Learned have been very severe upon such works as we now lay before the Public. Those who aspire to a gold erudition, must undoubtedly take other methods to acquire it.” The Annual Register – and indeed all magazines, it was argued – was not meant for scholars but rather for those with a taste for knowledge outside of the academy. The goal of such publications, the editors concluded, was then to “relieve the minds of men of business, who cannot pass from severe

66 Upton, The United Empire Loyalists; Bumsted, “Loyalists and Nationalists; Bell, Early Loyalist Saint John; Potter-MacKinnon, The Liberty We Seek; Brown and Senior, Victorious in Defeat; MacKinnon, This Unfriendly Soil; Calhoon, The Loyalist Perception and Other Essays; Walker, The Black Loyalists; Gwyn, Excessive Expectations; and Mason, “The American Loyalist Diaspora and the Reconfiguration of the British Atlantic World,” in Empire and Nation, eds Gould and Onuf, 239–59. 67 Cogswell, “The Maritime Provinces, 1720–1815,” in Literary History of Canada, ed. Klinck, 71–91; Davies, Studies in Maritime Literary History, 1760–1930; Davies, “Literary Cultures in the Maritime Provinces,” in History of the Book in Canada, ed. Fleming et al., 368–82. 68 Nova-Scotia Gazette, 20 October 1768, 4.

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labour to severe study, with an elegant relaxation. They preserve the strenuous idleness of many from a worse employment. These pretensions we have in common with all the other periodical compilers; and the same apology serves us all.”69 Printers of magazines saw their publications as an acceptable literary middle ground, more in depth and permanent than the mercurial newspaper and more affordable and accessible than books. An advertisement in the Nova-Scotia Gazette soliciting subscriptions to the Royal American Magazine in 1773 saw the publishers touting the unique benefits of the  magazine format while particularly denigrating the newspaper: “Newspapers are known to be of general utility, but not so fit to convey to posterity the labours of the learned, as they are, most commonly, only noticed for a day and then thrown neglected by: whereas Monthly Publications are preserved in the libraries of men of the greatest abilities in the literary world.”70 Anticipated to survive the ravages of time, books and – to a lesser extent – magazines were seen by eighteenth-century readers as a format befitting a more elevated and authoritative discourse. Of course, it was also good business for magazine printers to engage in this discourse. There were clear advantages in trying to persuade both traditional book and newspaper buyers of the value of the magazine. John Howe, the printer of the Nova-Scotia Magazine, proved to be no exception to this rule. An article he excerpted from the Imperial and Biographical Magazine71 stated – in no uncertain terms – the importance of the magazine format, underscoring its utility in diffusing “useful knowledge.” “Of the modes diffusing intelligence,” the article’s author opined: none seems better adapted for general advantage than well-conducted periodical publications; and of this species of literary compilation, magazines possess the pre-eminence: the collections of a month may form an useful repository, to which we can readily have recourse … Light compositions may be rendered instructive without fatiguing the intellect: and, while we read for mere amusement, we may collect stores of interesting information, or extend the improvement of morality, and the enlargement of understanding.72

69 The Annual Register, 1758, iii–iv. 70 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 5 October 1773, 4. 71 The publication in question was actually entitled the Bibliographical and Imperial Magazine, published from 1789 to 1792 and edited by John Thewell. Watson, ed., The New Cambridge Dictionary of English Literature, 1308. 72 “On the Literature of the Eighteenth Century,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 3, no. 1 (1790): 104.

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Four decades after the editors of the Annual Register had published their arguments in favour of their magazine and twenty years after the editors of the Royal American Magazine observed the worth of their publication, the same arguments were being repeated in the Nova-Scotia Magazine. “The mind which cultivates natural philosophy,” an article on the value of abridged and useful knowledge read, “prepares for itself inexhaustible pleasures: the more it learns, the more it perceives it has to be instructed in; the farther it advances, we gain a view of new objects equally desirable.”73 Periodicals were perfect for diffusing useful knowledge, providing non-specialist information that would intrigue casual readers without taxing them. Magazines were the perfect kind of publication for the man of commerce, military officer, or civic administrator who fashioned himself gentlemanly in his reading tastes and erudition. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, two English-language magazines were published domestically by printers in Quebec City and Halifax. The Quebec Magazine, published from 1792–94 and edited by a “society of gentlemen” – most notably the Rev. Alexander Spark74 – focused principally on news, politics, and history. In the magazine’s twoyear run, over ten articles on navigation and meteorological observations were published, with a half-dozen additional articles on medicine, four on agriculture, and another dozen on various branches of natural philosophy, including mathematics, astronomy, natural history, and electricity. Published between 1789 and 1792, the Nova-Scotia Magazine featured over thirty articles on natural philosophy (not including various letters and public commentary on agriculture, husbandry, and soil fertilization). The broad range of content spanned from locally authored ­articles, such as “To the Editor of the Nova-Scotia Magazine: On the Cultivation of Potatoes,”75 to reprints of circulars from American, British American, and British agriculture societies, such as “Thoughts on Raising and Feeding Swine [Communicated to the Blockley and Merrian Agri­ cultural Society, by Edward Heston].”76 During the same time frame, over 73 “An Account of the Improvements in Philosophy, Natural, History, Arts, and Trade, During the Last Year,” Nova-Scotia Magazine III (1790): 105. 74 Spark was the Presbyterian minister for Quebec City at the turn of the nineteenth century. He is noted for a concurrent passion to his ministry and to science. Lambert, “Spark, Alexander,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume v, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 75 A Farmer, “To the Editor of the Nova-Scotia Magazine: On the Cultivation of Potatoes,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 4, no. 11 (1791): 675–80. 76 Edward Heston, “Thoughts on Raising and Feeding Swine,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 4, no. 11 (1791): 669–70.

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half a dozen articles on First Nations languages, customs, and manners could be found, along with another half-dozen articles on electricity, magnetism, and chemistry, and twelve articles on topics concerning Natural History, fossils, animals, and botany (“the study of which,” one author opined, was the greatest “universal benefit to mankind”).77 The particular devotion of the printer and editor of the Nova-Scotia Magazine to science writ large was apparent in both editorials and the editorial selections ranging from technical treatises to lyrical forms of expression. In each monthly issue a section was devoted to poetry, much of which was penned by local authors. It is there, in May 1790, between two poems promoting the abolition of slavery, that readers were greeted with a “Hymn to Science.” “Science!,” the poem exclaimed: Thou fair effusive ray From the Great Source of mental Day Free, generous, and refin’d, Descend, with all thy treasures fraught, Illumine each bewilder’d thought, And bless my lab’ring mind … O let thy powerful charm impart The patient head, the candid heart Devoted to thy sway; Which no weak passions e’er mislead Which still with dauntless steps proceed, Where Reason points the way.78

The poem, although excerpted in the Nova-Scotia Magazine without reference to the author, was written by Mark Akenside (1721–1770), a theology student at the University of Edinburgh who later became a physician.79 Published in 1739 in the Gentleman’s Magazine, it experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1790s in Great Britain.80 The use of Akenside’s poem, which promotes the use of reason and science in everyday life,

77 Philo–Botanices, “For the Nova-Scotia Magazine – On the Study of Botany,” NovaScotia Magazine 5, no. 3 (1792): 140–6. 78 Anonymous, “Hymn to Science,” Nova-Scotia Magazine 2, no. 5 (1790): 396–7. 79 Dix, “Akenside, Mark (1721–1770),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 80 Bucke, On the Life, Writings, and Genius of Akenside, With Some Account of His Friends, 19. The poem experienced a resurgence of popularity again in the 1830s in both Great Britain and America where it was used for the education of youth. For examples see Leonard, ed., The Literary and Scientific Classbook, Embracing the Leading Facts and Principles of Science, 10–12; Mavor, ed., Classical English Poetry, For the Use of Schools, and Young Persons in General, 321–4.

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i­llustrates not only the printer’s devotion to the principles elucidated in the poem, but also the connections of such ideas to those held throughout the British Atlantic. The Rev. Dr Andrew Brown, like Halifax postmaster Joseph Peters, was also a correspondent of Boston’s Jeremy Belknap. Brown was a prominent member of Halifax society in the late 1780s. As the popular pastor of Halifax’s Presbyterian congregation, he would later return to Scotland to become the last chair of Rhetoric and Belle Lettres at the University of Edinburgh. A voracious reader, he particularly enjoyed newspapers and magazines, which took precedence over other productions. “The spring ships, bringing with them a great variety of new publications,” he wrote to Belknap in 1793, “interrupted for a season the course of my reading.” As much as he looked forward to this, Brown also lamented that the volume of print material was overwhelming and “requires great application to overtake and to finish it.”81 He was also a contributor to domestically produced print through his published observations and sermons. Although he may have also assumed a pseudonym and contributed anonymously, he did not need to. He was literally and figuratively ordained to shape colonial society. To be sure, the acquaintance exhibited between Brown and Belknap was not equal to that between Peters and the Boston academic. Both Belknap and Brown had a deep interest in chronicling colonial history and within a few years considered himself a “faithful friend” of the American minister.82 As ministers, both Belknap and Brown belonged to the upper echelon of colonial society. Indeed, Brown was an acquaintance of the most influential members of Halifax society including Governor John Wentworth and Chief Justice Samson Blowers, who originally introduced him to Belknap.83 Brown was an official Contributing Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and his correspondence with Belknap was preserved and later printed by the Society. On the other hand, it is not known how Peters came in contact with Belknap, nor is there any record of his being made officially a member of the Society.84 Peters’s correspondence was preserved by the Society, but unlike Brown’s 81 Letter from the Reverend Dr Andrew Brown, Halifax to the Reverend Dr Jeremy Belknap, Boston, 14 June 1793, in the Belknap Papers, volume 1, 547. 82 After some acquaintance with Belknap, “yours most faithfully” or your “faithful friend” was Brown’s standard farewell. 83 Belknap Papers, volume 1, 521. 84 Index to the First Twenty Volumes of the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1791–1883 (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1888). With appreciation to library assistant Katie Leach of the Massachusetts Historical Society for providing this information.

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letters, it was catalogued without his name, as merely “Meteorological Observations.” Yet, regardless of the varying levels of acquaintance amongst Peters, Brown, and Belknap, the fact that they could all correspond is noteworthy. For those colonists aspiring to a greater station, the acquisition of “useful knowledge” through the printed word had intellectual and social benefits. In the following chapters, we shall move away from the idea of print as a form of sociability with inherent rules, expected behaviour, and tangible repercussions towards print as a means to facilitate other forms of colonial sociability. In particular, we shall explore this conscious employment of print to promote and gain a wider public acceptance for more elite forms of sociability such as the theatre, coffeehouses, clubs, and subscription societies. This exploration will reveal both affinities and divisions amongst the colonial print community. Print reinforcement of social activities as well as the tensions created by differing opinions, as we shall see, only served to strengthen the collective and unfaltering support for the press as a vehicle to engage the mind and even change the shape of colonial society.

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P ART t wo Print and Sociability

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5 Making Private Public: Print and the Promotion of Associative Life

William Moore, using his Quebec Herald, was an ardent promoter of sociability and associative life in British North America. On one particularly eventful week in 1790 he observed that: On Wednesday Evening, a numerous meeting of the Benevolent Society took place in consequence of an advertisement for a choice of officers when those who served last year were entreated to continue their former exertions for promoting and furthering the society, who freely accepted the charge of the same.   On Thursday Morning the truly laudable Society for the encouragement of Agriculture met to chuse Directors for the next twelve months when the gentlemen who directed the last year, were unanimously chosen for the ensuing, and kindly undertook the task, for its future prosperity.   Too much praise cannot be given to the officers and committee of the fire society for their intense application to the completion of their truly salubrious designs.1

It would be wrong to see Moore’s words as entirely altruistic: he was a founding member of the Quebec Benevolent Society, and also received advertising revenue from the Agriculture and Fire societies. On the other hand, it would also be wrong to view these laudatory observations as solely the words of a flamboyant self-promoter, currying favour with affluent subscribers and advertisers. Moore, a known Freemason,2 did not fail to capitalize upon an opportunity to highlight the benefits of associative life. Indeed, he believed it his duty as a printer to make known the activities of such groups – informing, encouraging participation, and 1 Quebec Herald, 12 April 1790, 165. 2 See Ryder, “Moore, William,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume iv, www. biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013).

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even reassuring the colonial print community of the legitimacy of society activities. Moore was also not averse to any financial gains or appeal with more affluent readers that could result from such beliefs. In the preceding chapters, we have seen how the press was used by different members of the colonial print community to shape both print and the behaviour of its readers. Likewise, a dynamic relationship can be seen between the domestic press and the formation, promotion, and functioning of various societies and clubs in Halifax and Quebec City. From the newspapers of the capitals we can see that a vibrant society and club life existed. As the eighteenth century drew to a close several colonial societies founded to look after the well-being of its members would become more concerned with the greater public good. Print not only chronicled this change in club life; it was also employed to effect and announce this change. Through the printed word, concerns over the importance of club life in personal and civic formation were debated. The printed word shaped societies and clubs, giving members a transatlantic perspective on current events as well as providing knowledge of the best, and worst, practices exhibited elsewhere. Print also informed the reading public – including society members – of the results of club activities and charitable events, taking place in the community. While functional literacy was not a prerequisite for colonial societies, a greater cultural literacy – as exhibited by those who aspired to be a part of the colonial elite – became increasingly important. Colonial societies, as was the case with theatre and coffeehouses, also used the newspaper as a tool of elite formation. Members of the colonial print community took part in societies and print was increasingly used to inform, or seek the approval of, or offer a sense of cachet to club activities with other members of that print community. Historian Arthur Schlesinger famously observed the paradox that America, known for its individualistic roots, became a “nation of joiners” in the eighteenth century.3 Since Schlesinger’s time the study of eighteenth-century volunteerism and societies has become a rich field in American history. As Johann Neem recently reminds us, the study of American association offers us a view of a contested past that both encouraged civic engagement and gave voice to fringe organizations and ideologies.4 Societies, and in particular voluntary societies, have been considered integral to the social fabric of Victorian Canada,5 yet associative life in

3 Schlesinger, “A Biography of a Nation of Joiners.” 4 Neem, Creating a Nation of Joiners, 3–9. 5 Sutherland, “Voluntary Societies and the Process of Middle-class Formation in EarlyVictorian Halifax, Nova Scotia”; Varty, “The City and the Ladies”; Varty, “‘A Career in Christian Charity’”; Ferry, Uniting in Measures of Common Good.

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eighteenth-century British North America has not enjoyed a similar amount of attention. The French-language literature dealing with eighteenth-century clubs in Quebec is the most fulsome and, in particular, focuses on the literary nature that many societies exhibited and the role that they played in the cultural life of the colony.6 On the other hand, the writings on Halifax’s societies and sociability tend to overshadow any literary preoccupations, focusing instead on the practical aspects of Freemasonry or voluntary organizations in providing charity to its members.7 The lack of an overarching approach to the study of eighteenthcentury society life has perhaps given the impression that associations were sporadic and of little consequence in eighteenth-century Nova Scotia and Quebec. For example, historian of associative life Peter Clark writes that, “associations made slow progress” in Quebec and Nova Scotia. “Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia,” he continues, “had several masonic lodges and a Scottish society by the 1760s … The French defeat at Quebec was celebrated by the formation of a military masonic lodge, though subsequent attempts to establish a philosophical society failed; only in the last years of the century do an agricultural society and one or two other bodies surface.”8 Interpretations such as this are quite understandable. Eighteenthcentury British North Americans were both joiners and quitters as formal associations struggled under the vicissitudes of colonial life. Participants frequently failed to pay subscription fees, members moved away and, as a result, many early groups folded. Yet, underlying these difficulties was a British North American population that was exceedingly sociable and who were told that they should be sociable. Indeed, members of the colonial print community believed, as we have seen, that “sociableness is always better than unsociableness.” This belief can also be seen in the overwhelming manuscript and print evidence that details the popularity of dances, concerts, theatre, coffeehouse gatherings, clubs, salons, and society meetings. Formal societies, as with newspapers, did fail, but were soon replaced with similar modes of social interaction. Furthermore,

6 Lemire et al., La vie littéraire au Québec, 130–40, 369–71, 385–7, Rajotte, “Les pratiques associatives et la Constitution du champ de production littéraire au Québec (1760– 1867)”; Le Moine, “Francs-maçons francophones du temps de la Province of Quebec (1763–1791)”; Lamonde, Histoire sociale des idées au Québec (1760–1896); Andrès et Bernier, eds, Portrait des arts, des lettres et de l’éloquence au Québec, 1760–1840; Galarneau, “Sociabilité et associations volontaires à Québec, 1770–1859.” 7 For examples see Fergusson, “Eighteenth-century Halifax,” 32–9; Longley, A Short History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia 1738–1966; Harvey, “The Charter Membership of the Charitable Irish Society Re-examined”; Logan, “The Sheet Harbour Loyalist Settlement of 1784 and Hiram’s Lodge No. 8.” 8 Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 421–2.

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primary accounts reveal that the relative isolation in the capitals did not inhibit sociability but instead spurred it on, particularly during the harsh winter season. One Haligonian writing to loyalist Ward Chipman9 at the beginning of 1784 observed: “Our Winter hitherto has been Moderate … The Governor is a hearty Old Soldier [who] loves Sociability … There is a good number of agreeable Ladies Young & Married, for their amusement There is an Assembly Every Fortnight very well regulated.”10 A few years later, Lieutenant William Dyott would write in his diary noting that the winter “was very gay at Halifax – plays, balls, and assemblies; not near so much whist as usual, but an abundance of good eating and drinking.”11 Similarly, Isaac Weld who travelled through Upper and Lower Canada in the 1790s remarked that “the society in Quebec is agreeable, and very extensive for a place of the size, owing to its being the capital of the lower province, and there the residence of the governor, different civil officers, principal lawyers, &c. &c. The large garrison constantly kept in makes the place appear very gay and lively.”12 Thomas Aston Coffin, a senior bureaucrat and aide to Governor Dorchester,13 would frequently reassure his mother in Boston about the joie de vivre experienced in Quebec society, even during the isolation of winter: “Tho’ surrounded with Ice & Snow,” he wrote in December of 1790, “we enjoy health & are at least as social as in any other quarter of the Globe – our amusements of concerts, assemblies, &c. are commencing – friendly meetings are also very frequent.”14 In spite of the distance of Halifax and Quebec City from the major centres of the British Atlantic, the inhabitants of the capitals were no less interested in gathering and being sociable. 9 Chipman (1754–1824) was a loyalist lawyer from Massachusetts who settled after the American Revolution in New Brunswick. He was a good friend of many of the British North American elite including Jonathan Sewell, Edward Winslow, and Governor John Wentworth. See Buckner, “Chipman, Ward,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 6, www. biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 10 lac, MG23–D1 Ward Chipman (Senior and Junior) fonds, George Townsend to Ward Chipman, 12 January 1784, 1207–1208, Reel C–1180. 11 Jeffery, ed., Dyott’s Diary, 63. 12 Weld, Travels Through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada during the Years 1795, 1796 and 1797, 200–1. 13 Coffin tells his mother that his official title is “Commissary and Controller of Public Accounts to the Forces in North America.” In the 1790 Quebec City Directory, Coffin is listed as “Controller of Accounts and Assistant Secretary to Lord Dorchester.” mhs, Ms. N–1005, Thomas Aston Coffin papers, letter from Thomas Aston Coffin (Quebec) to Mrs Coffin (Boston), 12 April 1787, P–758, Reel 2; Mackay, ed., The Directory for the City and Suburbs of Quebec (Quebec: William Moore, 1790); also see Caya, “Coffin, Thomas Aston,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 5, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 14 mhs, Ms. N–1005, Thomas Aston Coffin papers, letter from Thomas Aston Coffin (Quebec) to Mrs Coffin (Boston) 9 December 1790, P–758, Reel 2.

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Small private gatherings in the form of salons, card clubs, and teas figured prominently, as documented in correspondence from the era. Thomas Aston Coffin, for example, writes how he dined on a weekly basis in the 1790s with a small cadre of soldiers and civil servants at the house of Adam Mabane, where literary, scientific, and political issues were discussed with the Scottish physician and former Quebec Chief Justice.15 The journals of James Thompson Sr, overseer of works at Quebec, detail how – apart from his regular duties maintaining the city’s fortifications and public buildings – he in 1788 had seventeen card tables especially crafted for Lady Dorchester to entertain ladies in her parlor.16 Thompson’s journals also describe in great detail his Order of the Gateau, a private gathering replete with fabricated rituals and rules of conduct that he hosted for a select group of his friends.17 The merchant Henry Juncken writes of frequent gatherings over whist, backgammon, and flute recitals with fellow Germans and other friends in Quebec City.18 In Halifax, during the 1770s and early 1780s the loyalist Rev. Dr Mather Byles Jr kept a “grand Parlor” finished with a “magnificent carpet” where he held salons, or entertained his “refugee friends.”19 The diary of twenty-year-old Mary Robie tells of her fondness for the dancing assembly and her frequent gatherings with others over tea.20 Indeed, one hallmark of the era’s correspondence is the place given to the description of social activities and the resulting gossip. Membership in more formal clubs and societies was also a hallmark of colonial life. Some of these connections were transatlantic in nature as members of the colonial print community maintained distant connections with British- and American-based societies. Halifax’s Andrew Brown, for example, was a Contributing Member of the Jeremy Belknap’s Massachusetts Historical Society. In the late eighteenth century, Quebec Chief Justice Peter Livius and physician John Mevin Nooth maintained

15 mhs, Ms. N–1005, Thomas Aston Coffin papers, letter from Thomas Aston Coffin (Quebec) to Mrs Coffin (Boston), 5 January 1792, P–758, Reel 2. 16 banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 1, Journal, James Thompson Sr, 1787–88. 17 banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 1, M.S.S. Letters, Anecdotes, Statistics, &c. James Thompson, Sr, 1788–1833, Volume I. 18 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 1788–1789, 12 September 1788, 12; 7 November 1788, 56; 24 December 1788, 114; 1 January 1789, 124; 9 January 1789, 136; 13 January 1789, 143; 25 February 1789, 231; 2 May 1789, 308. 19 mhs, Byles Family Papers, letter Rev. Dr Mather Byles Jr (Halifax) to Rev. Dr Mather Byles Sr (Boston), 20 February 1784[?]. 20 mhs, Ms. N–804, Mary Sewell Robie Diary, 1783.

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their membership and connections to the Royal Society of London.21 At the same time, other colonists such as Thomas Davies (Commander of the Artillery at Quebec) and Dr George Longmore gave papers, or offered ethnological samples to the Royal Society.22 In addition to participating at a distance in transatlantic societies, members of the colonial print community also formed local organizations. Some of these groups were regional branches of existing transatlantic bodies such as the Loyal Friendly Society of the Blue and Orange for members of the 30th Regiment of Foot23 or, most notably, Freemasonry.24 Other groups, such as Quebec City’s Barons Society, Merchant’s Society, and Veterans of 1775–76 club, or Halifax’s Yorkshire Club, were unique to the colonial setting and served the interests of current and former soldiers, merchants, and administrators. Still other groups, such as benevolent or friendly societies, were specifically bespoke to the difficult nature of colonial life. Regardless of the respective functions, most types of association were framed by prevailing British traditions such as requiring a constitution, enfranchising members, and levying membership fees and, occasionally, fines. One can see, from a comparison of the remaining society rolls, that it was not uncommon for members of the colonial print community to participate in several organizations simultaneously. Both Halifax and Quebec City can be considered home to a variety of debating societies, benevolent societies, agriculture societies, fire societies, veterans’ clubs, as well as private business clubs. During the second half of the eighteenth century, male Haligonians could participate in at least nine different clubs and fifteen separate Masonic lodges. Similarly, in Quebec City, citizens had the choice of no fewer than eleven clubs and at least sixteen Masonic gatherings. (See appendix I.) Membership in these more structured clubs and societies varied greatly over the second half of the eighteenth century. Some societies were short-lived while other organizations, such as Freemasonry, continued

21 The Royal Society, London, GB 117, Certificates of Election and Candidature, Livius, Peter, EC / 1773 / 10; Nooth, John Mervin, EC / 1773 / 34. 22 Hubbard, “Davies, Thomas,” and Tunis, “Longmore, George,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume v, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 23 Typical of like military clubs, the Blue and Orange set up branches wherever the regiment was stationed in the British Empire. See MacArthur, “The Loyal and Friendly Society of Blue and Orange,” 170. Dyott was invested into the Society before he departed to North America and recalls the Halifax investiture of Prince William Henry in his diaries. See Dyott’s Diary, 23, 41. 24 The transatlantic reach of Freemasonry has been perhaps best explored by Jessica Harland-Jacobs. See Harland-Jacobs, “‘Hands Across the Sea,’” 239; and Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire.

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throughout the century. However, even the longer-lasting groups experienced fluctuations in the level of participation. Factors that influenced continued membership included both successes and failures in business, waning interest amongst members, and armed conflict, as well as the continuous movement of participants within and away from the colonies. A cursory glance of late eighteenth-century Freemasons’ rolls underscores many of these challenges. For example, at St Andrew’s Lodge in Quebec City John McLeod, a “Captain of a Fishing Post in Labradore,” is listed as only “attending the duty of the Lodge while in the City.” Likewise, James Glenny, a timber merchant living in distant Chambly is listed as a part-time member “attending the duties during the summer seasons.”25 Some members’ absences were more permanent in nature. It is noted in the rolls of St Patrick’s Lodge in Quebec that Joseph Clark and John Mahony, both listed as ship masters, have “went to Europe.” Another member, a “Gentleman” named Banks Morton had “gone to the West Indies.”26 Other participants remained in the province, but sadly their economic status was such that they could not afford continued membership as Freemasons. Such was the case of George Ross, a merchant who had been “reduced to poverty by means of the late War,” or the merchant Hugh Fraser who, it is noted, had “failed in business & [been] reduced to extream poverty.”27 In spite of the difficulties experienced and ever-changing membership rates the importance of club sociability nonetheless remained constant during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Indeed, as the Masonic rolls indicate, some members went – literally – to great lengths to come to the urban centres and engage with other colonists. Print was an important vehicle that informed members of the colonial print community of club practices and values exhibited locally and throughout the British Atlantic. Newspapers would occasionally publish various rules advising readers about the best means to converse and otherwise interact within groups.28 Newspaper readers were also presented with a variety of club proceedings and news from Great Britain. Some of these proceedings were of direct commercial interest, such as the Committee of Merchants Trading to North America that met at Tom’s

25 Library and Museum of Freemasonry (lmf), St Andrew’s Lodge, No. 152 [erased], Quebec, GBR 1991 AR / 476, 1760–1789. 26 lmf, St Patrick’s Lodge, No.  153 [erased], Quebec, GBR 1991 AR / 520, 1777–1789. 27 lmf, St Andrew’s Lodge, GBR 1991 AR / 476. 28 “Short Rules for conversation,” Halifax Gazette, 21 November 1765, 1; “Thoughts on Various Subjects,” Halifax Gazette, 21 November 1765, 1.

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Coffee House in London and was reported in the Halifax Journal.29 Others stories of club life had more political interest, such as reporting on British gatherings in opposition to the proposed Sedition Acts in 1796,30 or the reporting in Quebec newspapers of British constitutional clubs in the years leading up to that colony’s constitutional change.31 Still other reports told of the pomp of Freemason activities,32 or of notable club happenings across the Atlantic. Such was the case in 1789, when Moore noted the establishment of a new club in England by the province’s occasional resident William Henry, the Prince of Wales. Under the headline the “Je ne scai quoi” Moore observed that: His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has established a Club at the Star and Garter under the above title.   As harmony, wit, humour, and conviviality so alternately prevail, how could a name less comprehensive than the present be allotted to it. Under such a patron as it boasts, it must undoubtedly take the lead of all other societies.   Captain Warner, so well known for his harmonic voice, and elegant composition, has composed some delightful glees adapted to the club, which do the honour to his taste and judgement.33

This particular account is interesting for several reasons. Its inclusion in the newspaper provides evidence of the notoriety of the Prince, who perhaps reciprocated his affection for the colony by bestowing his London club with an enigmatic French title. It also demonstrates a perceived interest in club life, at home and abroad, including a colonial familiarity with the Star and Garter, a popular and sociable London tavern. Finally, the article sheds light on the popular philosophy in the late eighteenth century – shared colonially and abroad – that club life was believed to necessarily feature “harmony, wit, humour, and conviviality” as well as an inherent eclecticism of activity and perspectives. Indeed, a British review of the Je ne scai quoi Club – published six years later – mirrors and expands upon the sentiments found in Quebec Herald. In the review, the Club was seen to possess the same “grace and dignity” that Prince William Henry exhibited and was particularly lauded for its core tenets, rooted in

29 Halifax Journal, 11 February 1796, 3. 30 Halifax Journal, 3 March 1796, 2. 31 For example see “Constitutional Club [of London],” Quebec Herald, 16 March 1789, 152; “Revolution Club, Edinburgh,” Quebec Herald, 24 February 1791, 105–6. 32 Halifax Gazette, 2 March 1754, 1. 33 Quebec Herald, 3 August 1789, 321.

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Freemasonry. “Friendship, love, nobility of soul, universal benevolence, and all the sublime and ruling attributes of masonic science,” the author of the review wrote, “diffuse their most sacred influence.”34 Although separated from England by the Atlantic Ocean, colonists in both Halifax and Quebec City were nonetheless fascinated by many of the same aspects of contemporary associative life. Print not only described club life elsewhere, it was also employed by a variety of colonial organizations to communicate with members or promote their objectives to other members of the colonial print community. Colonial debating societies, for example, were one type of club with directors who were most eager to use the press. From the mid-eighteenth century, clubs formed for the express purpose of debating grew in popularity throughout America and Europe.35 The Select Society of Edinburgh, boasting the membership of Adam Smith, David Hume (1711–1776), Henry Home, historian William Robertson, and physician William Cullen, became one of Britain’s most notable examples.36 In British America and the early American republic, secular oratory and debate also became a growing obsession.37 It was a preoccupation that was likewise present in Halifax and Quebec City. Here, however, unlike in the thirteen colonies, public debate experienced a similar popular appeal without necessarily being inherently republican in nature. Debating societies existed in both Halifax and Quebec City, but those in Quebec were especially embraced by the local press. As early as 1774, a group calling themselves the Select Society (inspired by its auspicious Scottish namesake) had been established in the Montreal area for the discussion of literary topics. Three years later in Quebec City the Minerva Free Debating Society, comprised of English-speaking residents from that city, was formed. Brown wrote, in describing the proceedings of the Minerva: “Few Men are Orators, ’tis certain; however every Man who has common Sense and the Power of Speech can easily express his Ideas in a Manner, tho’ not elegant, yet perfectly intelligible.”38 The Minerva Society offers an example of the intersection of print and sociability, as Brown would use his press to publish both the resolutions and the results 34 “The Je Ne Scai Quoi Club,” The Sporting Magazine, or Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf, the Chace and Every Other Diversion Interesting to the Man of Pleasure, Enterprize & Spirit 6 (1795): 83–4. 35 Munck, The Enlightenment, 67–9. 36 Emerson, ‘The Social Composition of Enlightened Scotland: The Select Society of Edinburgh, 1754–1764,” 291–329. 37 Brown, Knowledge Is Power, 12–13; Grasso, A Speaking Aristocracy, 4; Gustafson, Eloquence Is Power, 169–170. 38 Quebec Gazette, 23 January 1777, 3.

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of debates.39 Considering that the Minerva Society functioned during the height of the American Revolution, it is perhaps unsurprising that the topics stayed away from genuinely contentious political issues, focusing instead on moral dilemmas such as if “a reformed Rake Makes the best Husband,”40 or whether “Duelling be of Advantage or Disadvantage to Society,”41 or if the “Laughing Philosopher” is wiser than the “Weeping Philosopher.”42 Nonetheless, these gatherings were designed as a means to practise rhetoric and inform the public of current issues in the fashion popular throughout the British Atlantic. In terms of the sheer number of participants, the most popular debating society in Quebec City was the Constitution Club.43 Formed in December 1791 to celebrate the Constitutional Act, the initial meeting and dinner attracted 165 participants.44 Over the following months a constitution and rules of procedure were established and the gathering was transformed into a debating club designed to promote “free and reciprocal communication of sentiments, to acquire and diffuse a knowledge of the Constitution of Great Britain, and of this Colony.”45 Additional members were free to join as long as they signed their names in agreement to the rules of the club. More than a mere political debating society, the club’s constitution interestingly also included a mandate to encourage the diffusion of “a spirit of Commercial and Agricultural industry,” and to oppose a “tendency to retard, or prevent the spreading of knowledge and industry” perceived to be present in Quebec society.46 Like the Minerva Society, the proceedings and topics debated by the Constitution Club were assiduously followed in the pages of the colonial press. Debating societies and oratory were seen as powerful tools in colonial society. “A man cannot distinguish himself without” oratory, a correspondent under the name A British Commis wrote to

39 The Select Society and Minerva are described in Rajotte, “Les pratiques associatives,” 550–3. 40 Quebec Gazette, 23 January 1777, 3. The reformed rake was deemed as the best husband, see Quebec Gazette, 30 January 1777, 4. 41 Quebec Gazette, 30 January 1777, 4. The result was that duelling was deemed disadvantageous, see Quebec Gazette, 6 February 1777, 4. 42 Quebec Gazette, 6 February 1777, 4. The result was that neither was deemed wiser, see Quebec Gazette, 13 February 1777, 4. 43 For more on the political importance of the Constitution Club, see Hare, Aux Origines du Parlementarisme Québécois, 1791–1793, 38–43, 45. 44 “The New Constitution was celebrated by 165 Citizens in Quebec … at Frank’s, at one table, December 26, 1791,” in “  Provincial Chronology &c. Since the Conquest,” Moore’s Pocket Almanack, Calculated For the Year of our Lord MDCCXCII (Quebec: Herald Printing Office, 1791), 1. 45 Quebec Gazette, 26 January 1792, 2. 46 Ibid.

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the Quebec Herald in 1791: “in parliament, in the pulpit, or at the bar; and even in common conversation, he who has acquired an easy, and habitual eloquence and speaks with propriety and accuracy, will have a great advantage over those who speak inelegantly and incorrectly.”47 Although debating societies were some of the most short-lived associations in the capitals, their existence proves that the obsession with oratory and debate was not confined to Britain nor to the American colonies. Furthermore, the press was seen by members of debating societies (who were also part of the colonial print community of Quebec City) as key to keeping members and curious readers alike apprised of their activities. Clubs such as fire and agriculture societies also embraced the print medium to inform colonial readers of their efforts in the service of the public. These groups openly sought to protect or improve colonial society and boasted a broad-based membership that was only limited by a colonist’s ability to pay the subscription fee. From this membership base, a president and board of directors were elected annually and entrusted with the best interests of the society as a whole. Such associations functioned under formal constitutions, ratified by the membership, that dictated the frequency and order of meetings, the purview of the society, and the admission or removal of members or elected trustees. Because these societies were deemed to be in the public interest, they would publish meeting times in the newspapers, along with their minutes and financial accounts for the scrutiny of members and literate colonists alike. Fire societies were the earliest examples of this type of organization. Fire was a particular concern in colonial towns, where tightly packed homes of wooden construction dominated. In Halifax, the Union Fire Club was founded in January 1754 and operated throughout century.48 Quebec City had two fire societies, one formed in 1765 and another, under the name of the Amicable Society, in existence from the 1770s. In addition to extinguishing fires, fire societies ensured the safe removal of people and property from burning buildings and were involved in the programs designed to prevent conflagrations. From the body of fire society subscribers a special committee would be formed who had the task of removing property49 and were instructed with special watchwords and answers employed to distinguish committee members from thieves.

47 Quebec Herald, 20 January 1791, 71 (originally found in Chesterfield’s Letters, 1 November 1739). 48 5 union fire-club Halifax. Rules and Orders to be observed by the Members of the Union Fire-Club, First Instituted at Halifax on the 14th Day of January, 1754, and thence continued to the 14th day of January 1759 (Halifax: Halifax Gazette Printing Office[?], 1759). 49 Quebec Herald, 5 April 1790, 157.

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Members drew upon iconic colonial British phrases or personages for these watchwords, a fact that subtly underscores the sense of patriotism and civic pride that was shared by members.50 Furthermore, in their efforts to prevent fire, Quebec’s Amicable Society – which met quarterly at Simpson’s Coffee House in the Lower Town – used the Quebec Gazette to both advertise society meetings and proceedings and offer substantial rewards for the conviction of arsonists.51 By the late 1780s, it appears that Quebec’s two fire societies had merged and boasted a combined membership of 275 individuals and groups.52 Not only did fire societies provide an important service, they were a mark of civic pride and were touted as such in the colonial press. Through the newspapers of both Halifax and Quebec City, readers were shown that the directors and central committee of the fire society were comprised of some of the cities’ most notable inhabitants.53 Also related in colonial print was the fact that fire engines were prominently housed, along with water reservoirs and routine drills, on government or military property.54 A further mark of their importance was the money spent by the fire societies in the execution of their duties. In Quebec City, where the accounts of the fire society were publicly printed, almost £150 was spent in a period of ten months during 1789.55 Costs included twenty pounds and five shillings for the repair of fire engines, hoses, and buckets, seventeen pounds ten

50 While there is no known record of watchwords in Quebec City, they were more than likely similar to the ones used in Montreal that uniformly described colonial or British officials and royalty. Some examples of watchwords and answers used by the Montreal Fire Club in the 1780s include: “Monday 8th Jan. 1787 … Watchword Quebec Answer: Carleton,” “Monday 7 Jan. 1788 … Watchword Dorchester Answer: Montreal,” and “5 January 1789 … Watchword William Henry Answer: Chatham,” see McGill Rare Books and Special Collections, McGill University, Montreal, MS 437, CH133.53, Montreal Fire Club, Minute Book, 1786–1814, 2921–2. 51 Such as when it offered a $100 reward after a spate of fires in 1771. Quebec Gazette, 13 June 1771, 3. 52 Quebec Herald, 4 February 1790, 84. 53 In the late 1780s in Halifax these people included “John Fillis, Jn George Pyke, R.J. Uniacke, Mich. Wallace, Geo. Bell, Law. Hartshorne, W. Lawlor, James Cochran, John Cleaveland, Charles Hill,” see Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 27 January 1789, 3. In Quebec, members included “officers, Nathaniel Taylor, President, Mr. Robert Woolsey, Treasurer, Mr. William Roxburgh, Secretary, Mr. Michael Cornud, Mr. Louis Turgeon, Inspectors committee, Lower Town, John Lees, James Tod, Con. Freeman, John Painter, M. Baillargé, pere, – Rollet, Upper Town, John Lynd, Godfrey King, Frederick Petry, John Ross, Baillargé, fils, – Hout.” Quebec Herald, 5 April 1790, 157. 54 “Fire Society,” Moore’s Pocket Almanack Calculated for the Year of our Lord, MDCCXCII (Quebec: Herald Printing Office, 1791), 24–5; and Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 2 June 1789, 3. 55 Quebec Herald, 21 January 1790, 69.

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shillings and seven pence to hire additional labour to extinguish fires, and seven pounds eight shillings and eleven and a half pence for the purchase of fifty-two “hats, label’d in the front F.S.” for the men that operated the fire engines.56 The soldiers of the garrison, although paid by the state, were also recognized for their efforts; £7 ten shillings was expended for three hogsheads of porter “given to the troops assisting at the late fire in Mountain Street.”57 Not an obvious venue for the discussion of moral philosophy, fire societies were nonetheless the practical embodiment of emerging eighteenth-century ideas of public welfare and social responsibility communicated in the presses of Halifax and Quebec City. Such associations provided an opportunity in which the private citizens, public officials, and civil servants – many of whom can be considered members of the colonial print community – could work together for the public good. Print informed readers of the general importance of civic responsibility and thus was also employed to express the specific public benefit of fire societies, detail the actions of its members, or chronicle their efforts in fire prevention or the persecution of arsonists who posed a very real threat to the fabric of colonial society. Agriculture societies, formed under mandates to improve colonial farming and husbandry, utilized the medium of the press even more vigorously than fire societies. In 1789, agriculture societies were founded in both Quebec City and Halifax under the patronage of colonial governors. Financial subventions or donations of seed and agricultural implements were given to bolster membership fees that funded programmes to encourage new farming practices, or to publish findings from other Agriculture societies. These state-sponsored organizations can be considered the first public scientific societies in British North America, encouraging better agricultural practices and attempting to foster a public interest in agricultural science. In addition to the purchase of seed and the funding of agricultural experiments, agriculture societies also published the latest agricultural findings. In the first year of the Quebec Agriculture Society alone, William Moore is listed as receiving over £6 for printing costs.58 The next year Samuel Neilson notes ­being paid over £3 for printing 150 circulars, on proper agricultural practices, to be distributed by the rural curates and for 400 blank letters

56 Ibid. 57 Ibid. 58 banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 5, Minutes of Agriculture Society of Quebec, 1789–1792, “Account of the First Year of the Society 1789–1790,” John Lees, Treasurer.

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to be used by the Directors of the Society.59 Printers like Neilson also donated free printing to the Society, citing the importance of the cause to the development of the colony.60 Printers of both magazines and newspapers in the years surrounding the formation of agriculture societies in Halifax and Quebec also made special efforts to prominently feature essays and letters on agricultural science. In both Nova Scotia and Quebec the establishment of agriculture societies became a touchstone of excitement and public admiration that was also expressed through print. Printers annually published the names of the organizations’ executives (comprised primarily by members of the colonial executive councils) as well as a list of the names of subscribing members that read as a who’s who of both the capitals and the surrounding rural counties.61 Printers also lauded the efforts of the governors and senior colonial officials who founded and administered the organizations. For example Moore wrote in 1789 that: “Too much praise cannot be given to His Excellency the Governor, His Honour the Lieutenant Governor, and the other Gentlemen forward in establishing an Agricultural Society in the Province, as the advantages that will occur from it to the community at large, must be sufficiently evident to the discerning, and reflects the highest honour on the projectors and promoters.”62 Another correspondent to the Herald, under the moniker A Subscriber to the Agriculture Society, enthusiastically observed that Lord Dorchester, the province’s governor and patron of the newly instituted society, “may with truth be stiled the father of this country.”63 A similar fervour could be seen in Nova Scotia, not only for Lieutenant Governor Parr, the Halifax society’s patron, but for the scientific spirit the organization embodied, marked by reason, experience, and the dissemination of useful knowledge. “Knowledge will be diffused, and the Public will derive Benefit from the Experience of Individuals,” an article in the Nova-Scotia Gazette observed in relating the founding of the Nova Scotia Agriculture Society: 59 “Brown / Neilson Shop Records,” in Early Canadian Printing, eds Fleming and Alston, 486. 60 banqq, P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960–01–544 / 5, Minutes of Agriculture Society of Quebec, 1789–1792, “Special meeting of the Directors,” 18 June 1791. 61 For various example see Quebec Agriculture Society, Quebec Herald, 27 April 1789, 206–7; Quebec Agriculture Society (Montreal Branch), Quebec Herald, 23 November 1789, 5; Nova Scotia Agriculture Society, Nova-Scotia Magazine 2, no. 4 (1790): 241–8, Weekly Chronicle, 2 May 1795, 3; New Brunswick Agriculture Society, Quebec Herald, 16 September 1790, 340–1; District of Nassau Agriculture Society, Quebec Gazette, 12 April 1792, 3. 62 Quebec Herald, 9 March 1789, 145. 63 Ibid., 13 April 1789, 187.

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It frequently happens that Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Agriculture are lost to Mankind for want of Communication – they die with those who made them. This Society will preserve all Discoveries and Improvements of this Kind that are communicated to them; and make them extensively beneficial by conveying them to others. There is no Art more useful or necessary than Agriculture.64

Colonial agriculture societies not only promoted the improvement of society through the diffusion of scientific knowledge, they also provided a further point of shared interest to bring together Nova Scotia and Quebec after the American Revolution. Through the particular efforts of printers in the capitals, the colonial leaders were presented as exemplars of public-minded and progressive men embodying the best traits of the British character. While colonial agriculture societies received government support, not all causes or individuals enjoyed the same privileges. In an age before universal welfare programs, colonists who fell upon hard times had to petition directly, and often unsuccessfully, to the Governor and council for assistance. As a result, one of the most common types of organized colonial gatherings was the benevolent society. These included the North British Society, the Charitable Irish Society, and the Quebec Benevolent Society and Freemasonry (which operated under a system of charitable petition similar to that operated by colonial authorities). These societies were formed with specific charitable intensions (often to care for the sick or the dead) and had specific guidelines, as exhibited in their constitutions, regarding to whom such benevolence could be extended. As the founding articles of the North British Society read in 1768: Whereas Sickness and Death is the Common lot of all Mankind, in Order Therefore, to Assist each other as much as in us lays, we the Subscribers, do bind our selves into a Society under the name of the North Briton Society or Scots Club for the Benefit of our selves, and Assistance of Each other, who may be Afflicted by Sickness or any other Casualty or Misfortune in Body.65

Societies, and particularly friendly associations such as the North British Society, were formed for the express purpose of assisting their members and family in the face of adversity. These colonial associations are also notable for their organizational complexity, detailed written constitutions, and the emphasis placed on

64 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 3 November 1789, 3. 65 nsarm, MG 20, Volume 230, North British Society, Treasurer’s Records, Articles of the North British Society, 1768.

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the importance of propriety, order, and democracy in their proceedings. Indeed, the first decision made by the North British Society in 1768 – that is, after electing its moderator, stewards, and monthly meeting time – was to procure a box (for dues and fines) and a mallet (for the use of the moderator).66 The constitution of the North British Society made it clear that the conduct of members should be exemplary, or else there would be strict punishments. To “Blaspheme The Name of Almighty God by cursing, or Swearing,” for example, incurred a six pence fine, an amount that was raised to one shilling for every subsequent offence. Other six pence fines included not paying attention to the moderator, or leaving a meeting without the permission of the moderator. A dearer penalty of one shilling above the monthly dues was exacted for anyone missing three consecutive meetings without excuse. However, the largest fine – that of two shillings and six pence – was saved for those who missed the funerals of fellow members. Penalties other than those identified in the articles of the constitution were possible, but could only be enacted after being put to a vote of the membership.67 Similarly, in 1789 the initial constitution of the Quebec Benevolent Society also made provisions to ensure the regular attendance and appropriate behaviour of members. “That upon the misbehaviour of any member,” the seventeenth article of the Society constitution warned: Or members on a meeting night, by challenging to fight, or game, by offering wagers, party disputes, obscene discourse, oaths or drunkenness, for every such offence, shall be fined 1s. and not being silent when three times demanded bythe President, or presiding officer, he or they so misbehaving shall forfeit 2s. & 6ds. each, and upon any further misbehaviour the same evening, the said member or members shall quit the room at the request of the President, or presiding officer, or forfeit the sum of 10s.68

Benevolent societies, like other colonial organizations, valued free association, but regulation was nonetheless required to ensure that members would behave with decorum and propriety. The Quebec Benevolent Society, with Moore as a member of its directors, actively employed the press to communicate its activities to the public. Established in 1789, it was unlike the friendly societies of Halifax that were initially formed along the ethnic lines of its members. The Quebec

66 nsarm, MG 20, Volume 230, North British Society, Treasurer’s Records, Proceedings of the North Britons Society, Tuesday 29th March 1768, 15. 67 nsarm, MG 20, Volume 230, North British Society, Treasurer’s Records, Articles of the North British Society, 1768. 68 Rules and Regulations of the Quebec Benevolent Society, 15. CIHM #55328.

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5.1  A thriving British American capital in the woods. Eighteenth-century Halifax possessed strong transatlantic ties to Great Britain and the rest of America, particularly Boston. This can be particularly seen in the architecture and nomenclature of the town’s spaces. “The Governor’s House and St. Mather’s [St. Mathew’s] Meeting House, Hollis Street ... Halifax,” 1764, by Richard Short, after Dominic Serres.

Benevolent Society was open to all, regardless of religion or background, as long as they were deemed of “perfect health” and good “character and morals.”69 Its founding members were indeed a variety of people of German, Scots, Irish, Welsh, English, and American backgrounds.70 Its members – comprised of merchants, a schoolmaster, a coffeehouse proprietor, and several former members of the British Army – can all be considered to be participants in the colonial print community. Indeed,

69 Rules and Regulations of the Quebec Benevolent Society, Established the First Wednesday in May MDCCLXXXIX. Held in the Merchant’s Coffee House, 1789, 8. CIHM #55328. 70 The founding members were: Henry Juncken (president), Jonathan Eckart (vicepresident), Godfrey King (treasurer), John Jones (secretary), William Moore (steward), John Rees, A. Ferguson, John Fraser, James Hanna, John Saul, George Pashley, John Chillas, Daniel Fraser, William Grant, John Urquhart, Josias Wurteler, Thomas Fergusson, John Ayton, John Rhynart, Anthony Vamelson, William Laing, and John Robertson. See ibid., 21–2.

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the members were required to be literate as their printed constitution dictated that all were required to purchase a copy of the “rules and regulations” of the society and follow the newspaper for announcements on society meetings.71 The Quebec Benevolent Society provides just one example of how print became not only common place, but essential in even the non-print activities of the colonial print community. During the last two decades of the century, the nature of benevolent societies began to change. Originally these societies were inwardly focussed on the specific needs of the membership. However they increasingly became more community-oriented, embracing an agenda that promoted the public good and universal benefit (in a manner not dissimilar to that exhibited in the agricultural societies of the era). As we observed, the Quebec Benevolent Society – founded near the end of the century – was premised on a principle of universal charity. This spirit can also be seen in the published mandate of the Charitable Irish Society of Halifax, formed in 1786, to look after its members and “promote and encourage friendship and good will amongst men,”72 regardless of race or origins. It was during this same period that the Marine Society of Halifax, originally founded by mariners to “collect observations for the improvement of Navigation, and to raise a fund for the assistance of each other,” changed its mandate to become of more service to the greater public.73 Inspired by the actions of the Royal Humane Society of London, who in its eighteen years had seen the resuscitation of over 1,500 drowned persons, the Society changed its constitution and name to become the Marine Humane Society of Halifax, an organization “heartily disposed to enter on the divine work of saving life.”74 This shift in the focus of colonial benevolent associations, however, was not always immediate and in some cases – such as Halifax’s North British Society – change could divide the membership. In 1787, the Edinburgh-trained physician John Halliburton was elected the Society’s president. With the assistance of executive members, such as fellow physician Duncan Clark, fundamental changes were tabled to modernize the twenty-year-old society. Clark, for example, suggested inviting a broader cross-section of the community to share in the feast of St Andrew. Society minutes record that a lengthy and heated debate ensued with the majority of the members in the end voting against Clark’s proposal.

71 Ibid., 20. 72 Constitution of the Charitable Irish Society of Halifax, Nova Scotia. As Revised and Amended in 1892 (Halifax: William MacNab, 1893), i. CIHM #91976. 73 Weekly Chronicle, 3 January 1795, 1. 74 Ibid.

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Clark may have lost the battle, but it was clear that the tide was changing. The next year Clark, as the newly elected president, reintroduced his suggested additions, including the invitation of non-members to Society events, which were approved without debate. The increasing outreach of the traditionally inward-directed North British Society did not end with the expansion of the circle of sociability. In 1787, Halliburton and Clark urged the members to offer funds in response to the hardships experienced by Black settlers at Dartmouth and Preston who, it was reported, suffered under a “distressed situation & Circumstances” due to the “Severity of the Winter [which] had almost totaly destroyed the Roots & seeds they had sowed for their lands the ensuing season.”75 As a result the Society decided to donate ten pounds; the first time it had ever had charitably supported non-members with funds raised by the membership. This decision, too, ran into controversy with some subscribers. In 1791, after years of debate, the Society decided to hedge its bets. Bowing to internal pressure to maintain the Scottish nature of the society, it instituted a permanent committee for charity – the focus of which would be on the Scots in the community. At the same time, the preamble of the constitution was rewritten and published. It, on the other hand, encouraged greater community engagement amongst the membership whenever possible, noting: “there is nothing so narrow or illiberal in their Institution, as to indispose them, in their individual capacity, for acting up to the principles of universal charity, and joining with the community at large, in acts of social or private beneficence.”76 As the examples of the Marine, Irish, and North British society illustrate, associative nature was in transition during the late eighteenth century. This transition was not always seamless. Nonetheless, it reflected greater trends found in print that encouraged universal benevolence and civil good. In particular, print was employed as a means to diffuse the word and seek public approval of these changes. As we have seen, many colonial societies and clubs courted the press – using it to announce meeting times, or to engage the greater print community. Part and parcel of this growing belief in the importance of a greater public good was a growing use of the press to inform the public of club activities, as well as to legitimize their private activities through public scrutiny.

75 nsarm, MG 20, Volume 231, North British Society, Treasurer’s Records, Proceedings of the North British Society, Wednesday 28th February 1787. 76 nsarm, MG 20, Volume 231, North British Society, Treasurer’s Records, Revised “Rules Articles of the North British Society,” 1791.

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Much has been made about the importance of Freemasonry in the eigh­ teenth century. Its study, scholars such as Margaret Jacob argue, redefines our understanding of the nature of the Enlightenment. Freemasonry, “for all of its exclusivity, secrecy, and gender bias,” Jacob writes, “transmitted and textured the Enlightenment, translated all the cultural vocabularies of its members into a shared common experience that was civil and hence political.”77 Placing Jacob’s work in a Habermasian context, James Van Horn Melton writes that the institution, along with coffee­ houses, was an important British contribution to the Enlightenment public sphere of Europe. Freemasonry, though not unique, offered a popular means of sociability that levelled the classes, afforded free association and voice, and provided charity to its members. Melton argues that Freemasonry was the first voluntary organization that emerged that was both secular and existed throughout Europe.78 The popularity, however, of this equality minded form of sociability was not restricted to the confines of eighteenth-century Europe. Freemasonry, as Jessica HarlandJacobs writes, “was one institution that contributed to the development of these intracultural connections in the British Empire. By creating a global network that had both practical functions and ideological dimensions, Freemasonry played a critical role in building, consolidating, and perpetuating the empire.”79 A characteristic of the fraternity as elucidated in the 1723 Book of Constitutions, historian Stephen Bullock writes, was that it provided a “‘Centre of Union’ in a world of ‘perpetual distance.’”80 In both Halifax and Quebec City, Freemasonry fulfilled many of these traits exhibited elsewhere in the British Atlantic world. It reconnected members with greater trans-Atlantic traditions while projecting a philosophy that underscored the importance of brotherhood and mutual assistance in an unsure colonial environment. It also encouraged its members to engage in acts of external charity, civic betterment, and self-improvement. Clearly the messages and activities of Freemasonry found resonance as it was the most prolific form of club sociability in Halifax and Quebec City during the late eighteenth century. Freemasonry, read a printed sermon of Halifax minister and freemason the Rev. Brother Joshua Weeks, “reduces all men to a pleasing and rational equality. Beyond any institution of human origin it inculcates industry in acquiring, temperance in using,

77 Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, 224. 78 Porter, The Creation of the Modern World, 252. 79 Harland-Jacobs, “Hands Across the Sea,” 239; also see Harland-Jacobs, Builders of Empire. 80 Bulloch, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 31.

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and charity in distributing the good things in life.”81 Men from a broad cross-section of society in Halifax and Quebec City associated under the mantle of colonial Freemasonry. Officers with both the army garrisons and Royal Navy detachments were members, as were prominent merchants, physicians, and gentlemen.82 Every governor and lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, for example, during the second half of the eighteenth century was a Freemason, and Freemasons were often called upon to be the Provincial Grand Master.83 Through Freemasonry, members of the upper echelons of the colonial print community could freely associate with other literate colonists as well as those with varying degrees of literacy such as the shoemakers, cabinetmakers, tradesmen, butchers, bakers, sail-makers, mariners, tailors, tavern-keepers, and gardeners listed on the Masonic rolls.84 Although divided amongst different lodges, the Freemasons in the capitals believed themselves to be united – as demonstrated by their gathering for the celebration of their “rational equality” upon the death of a member or at a Masonic festival. Freemasonry above all offered a convivial means for members to interact, recall past events, or discuss current issues affecting the community. “I don’t indeed know a more sociale pleasing & rational Way of spending an Evening with Company,” wrote Dr Peter Middleton the Provincial Grand Master of New York in 1766, “than when the Rules of a Lodge are properly framed & religiously adhered to. It is usual here when Business is over for a Warden to ask Leave of the Master for the Members to hold free conversation. This is seldom denied; And then the brethren engage

81 Joshua Wingate Weeks, Sermon Presented at St. Paul’s Church in Halifax, On Friday, June 24th 1785, Being the Festival of St. John, Before the Grand Lodge and the Other Lodges of the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons, in Halifax, Nova Scotia (John Howe: Halifax, 1785), 16. 82 For Quebec City, see the lmf, Merchants’ Lodge, No. 151 [erased], Quebec, GBR 1991 AR / 467, 1765–1789, “A List of Members of Merchants Lodge, No. 1 held at Free Masons Hall in the City of Quebec, Quebec 9 November 1789.” For Halifax see the various regimental lodge records held in the nsarm. 83 Charges and Regulations of the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons Extracted from Ahiman Rezon &c., Together with A concise Account of the Rise and Progress of Free Masonry in Nova-Scotia, from the first Settlement to this Time (Halifax: John Howe, 1786). 84 lmf, St Patrick’s Lodge, No.  153 [erased], Quebec, GBR 1991 AR / 520, 1777– 1789, “A List of the members of the St. Patricks Lodg, No. 3 Quebec held at the Cork Arms. 20th October 1789”; St Andrew’s Lodge, No. 152 [erased], Quebec, GBR 1991 AR / 476, 1760–1789, “List of the Members of St. Andrew’s Lodge No.  2 Quebec acting under a Warrant of Constitution dated at Quebec 20th October A.L. 5760 grant by the Honrble and Right Worshipful Colonel Simon Fraser then Provincial Grand Master of Masons in Canada … Quebec 25th October 1789.”

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in chat at Liberty, till the Master’s mallet brings them again into Order.”85 Endeavouring to create a balance amongst liberty, equality, rationality, and order was indeed one of the principle characteristics of eighteenthcentury masonry. Lodge records from Halifax show that a great deal of attention was paid to the discipline of members who displayed “un-­ masonical behavior,” which generally included drunkenness, swearing, and the refusal to pay membership dues. One typical edict issued in 1787 to punish members’ behaviour read: James Clark, late a Member in the Lodge No. 3 in the 57th Regiment, is finally excluded for Drunkeness, Non Attendance and other UnMasonical behaviour – And Wm. Kennedy of the same Lodge, is Suspended, for 6 Months from the 1st November last.   John Livingston late a Member of Lodge No.  52 in 37th Regt. is finally excluded, for NonAttendance and other Irregular and UnMasonical behaviour.86

In most cases, such decisions were used as a warning and did not necessarily mean the permanent expulsion of a member. Even James Clark, who appeared to be a repeat offender, was returned to the brotherhood a few years after his expulsion.87 Like many other eighteenth-century organizations, Freemasonry was preoccupied with the importance of balancing liberty and order. The fraternity allowed its members some latitude for free discussion, but also ensured that they maintained a high standard of conduct. Somewhat paradoxically for a society that prided itself on its secrets, the Freemasons of Halifax and Quebec City were a very public fixture of colonial society and in the colonial press. In both capitals, lodge secretaries would use the press to announce upcoming banquets and meetings. Masonic manuals, such as the one published by Halifax’s John Howe in 1786, that detailed the history, rules of conduct, and the importance of

85 Letter Peter Middleton to Sir William Johnson, 6 July 1766, in Flick, ed., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, volume 5, 308. 86 nsarm, MG 20, Volume 2006, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #6, Sion Lodge No. 3 (Halifax), 57th Regiment of Foot, 1786–1791. 87 As reads the text of the minutes concerning his readmission: “I am directed to Inform you, that James Clark formerly a member of / Sion Lodge but since Excluded for unmasonical Behaviour; has Petitioned to be readmitted as a member of / Sion Lodge No. 3 / The Lodge has on account of his good Behaviour for this Long time past, come to a Resolve to Admit him, providing it merits with the approbation of the Grand Lodge.” nsarm, MG 20, Volume 2006, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #6, Sion Lodge No. 3 (Halifax), 57th Regiment of Foot, 1786–1791.

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secrecy, were published and distributed widely.88 Newspaper readers would submit Masonic songs, aphorisms, and poetry for publication for the entertainment and interest of brothers and those outside of the craft. Such pieces generally told of the convivial nature of freemasonry, while also underscoring the brotherhood’s devotion to God, charity, and the public good. As the chorus to a Masonic song published in the NovaScotia Gazette observed in 1773, “Let the day be ever prais’d / When the Royal Craft was rais’d / Let the social virtues shine / Doing good is sure divine.”89 Similarly, a Masonic aphorism published over a decade later in the Quebec Herald read: “Though we are all free and on the level, yet it is our duty always to keep within compass, and to conduct ourselves according to the square and plumb.”90 The print diffusion of Masonic events, rules, poetry, and verse offered the brethren and public alike information on certain aspects of the inner workings of the secretive society. Through the vehicle of the press, freemasonry was portrayed as an orderly, rational, charitable, and civic-minded organization, to the pride of members and reassurance of the general public. Reports of Masonic festivals – held both locally and abroad – were inserted by printers for the interest of the reading public. As early as 1754 on the front page of the Halifax Gazette the parade and rituals surrounding the laying of the foundation stone for the new Exchange in Edinburgh was observed, and coverage of the event continued on the front page of the next week’s paper.91 Such reports continued and increased over the next five decades in the papers of both Halifax and Quebec City. During the years that the Quebec Herald was published Moore ensured that the charitable acts of Freemasonry did not go unnoticed. Indeed Moore can perhaps be seen as one of Freemasonry’s greatest boosters in British North America and the West Indies. While living as an actor in Kingston, Jamaica in 1781, he would perform his “Masonic Oration” which was described in the local press as a piece in which “the Lessons of that Order are poetically pictured, and add a Lustre to Masonry. With an address to the Ladies, with a just Reason given why they are not admitted.”92 The next year, Moore had a pamphlet entitled The Elements of Freemasonry

88 Charges and Regulations of the ... Society of Free ... Masons, extracted from Ahiman Rezon (Halifax: John Howe, 1786). One of the only remaining copies of this work is found in the British Library attesting to the wide diffusion of the work. 89 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 22 June 1773, 4. 90 “Masonic Aphorisms from An Introduction to Free Masonry, by Mr. Meeson M.M,” Quebec Herald, 29 December 1788, 54. 91 Halifax Gazette, 2 March 1754, 1 and 9 March 1754, 1. 92 Supplement to the Royal Gazette (Kingston, Jamaica), 22 December 1781, 301.

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Delineated published by Kingston’s Royal Gazette press.93 In May of 1785, while visiting Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Moore’s show was billed slightly differently as an “Eulogium on Free Masonry. In which Mr. Moore will discover to the Ladies the secrets of that art”94 and for a June 1785 performance in Halifax the public were simply told that he was to perform a “Eulogy for Freemasonry in the Character of a Master Mason.”95 In December of 1785, in Albany, New York, the actor was known as “Brother Moore” in the billing for his performance.96 After leaving the theatre and setting up a press in Quebec City in 1788, Moore used his press to make public his sentiments on the importance of what he believed were Freemasonry’s core charitable tenets. For Freemasons, there was no larger public activity than the celebration of the festivals for St John the Evangelist and St John the Baptist. In Quebec City, these were two events that Moore made sure did not escape the attention of the reading public. “Saturday being St. John’s day,” Moore reported in the Quebec Herald in December 1788: at Mr. Dailey’s Tavern; – and the Ancient York Lodge at Merchant’s Coffee House – the same celebrated by the different Lodges in this City, at the following places; viz. the Merchant’s Lodge No. 1, and St. Andrew’s Lodge at Mr. Mackay’s tavern; – St. Patrick’s Lodge House; the Ancient York Lodge of the 53rd Regiment at Mr. Batty’s. We are happy to add the conviviality and propriety which should ever distinguish that Ancient and honourable Society, was manifested in an eminent degree by each Lodge respectively.97

Likewise, the following June, Moore observed: Wednesday morning … being St. John’s day, a plentiful and elegant dinner was provided, at Brother Frank’s, which was attended by a numerous and respectable body of the Brethren; who spent the afternoon with that harmony and decorum which should ever be the inseparable characteristic of Free Masonry: Masonic toasts and sentiments with the honours of Masonry, joined by some well sung Masonic and other pleasing songs, added greatly to the hilarity and good humour which manifested itself on this festive occasion.98

Such observations were published as they were believed by printers to be of interest to the members of the colonial print community who were 93 Vibert, The Rare Books of Freemasonry, 23. 94 Port Roseway Gazetteer and the Shelburne Advertiser, 12 May 1785. 95 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 14 June 1785. 96 Sheilhamer, History of the American Theatre: During the Revolution and After, volume ii, 195. 97 Quebec Herald, 29 December 1788, 54. 98 Ibid., 29 June 1789, 281.

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also Freemasons. The glowing reports of Masonic activity were written as well for the benefit of those who were not in attendance, were curious, or were even fearful of what activities continued after parading in public. In particular, language that highlighted the “good humour,” “harmony,” and “decorum” of the occasion was undoubtedly employed to assuage any such fears and tout the refined merits of Masonic sociability. Reports also were published to underscore the charitable nature of the brotherhood. On special occasions such as the Feast of St John lodges would also undertake large public charity events, events that did not fail to escape the notice of local printers. Unsurprisingly, Moore was particularly astute at recording and praising acts of Masonic charity. “The fraternity of FreeMasons,” he wrote in one such instance: considering the distressed situation of the poor, in the present scarcity of flour, have generously ordered four hundred and fifty loaves to be baked by Mr. Saul, and delivered to the poor, on St. John’s day, (Wednesday next) between the hours of seven and nine in the morning – Such whose distresses required it, on producing a certificate from Mons. A.B. Hubert, curé; the reverend Messrs. Montmolin [sic] and Sparks [sic], will receive a proportion according to their respective situations.99

Colonial freemasonry was also publicly praised – in the form of published sermons – for its equality as well as its compassionate and charitable nature. The Rev. Weeks’s sermon, as we have seen, told of the “pleasing and rational equality” of Freemasonry as well as its charitable foundations in a sermon printed in 1785. In 1780, the Grand Lodge of Quebec had the Rev. Brother George Henry’s St John’s day sermon published for the benefit of the brethren and the public. In the sermon, the Henry expounded on the important tenets of Freemasonry, underscoring charity and brotherly love. “The wise and sovereign Providence of God has so ordered, that there is a Diversity in the States of Men,” Henry observed: “Some are indigent, others in a capacity of relieving; the rich and the poor meet together … Reason and a compassionate Heart will readily suggest to a Man, how he ought to shew his Charity; that it is by feeding the hungry, cloathing the naked, visiting the sick and the Prisoner, and taking in the Stranger.”100 In such manner Rev. Henry reminded all those present that, in addition to the bonds of brotherhood within the Craft, members were

99 Ibid., 22 June 1789, 271. 100  Rev. George Henry, Brotherly Love Explained and Recommended, in a Sermon Preached Before the Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons at Quebec, On Monday the 27th of December, 1779, Published at the Request of the Society (Quebec: William Brown, 1780), 9–10. CIHM #55146.

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to also remember their duty to all mankind. Such language, reflecting the importance of universal charity, equality, and public good, was undoubtedly appealing to Freemasons. However, the publishing of both Henry’s and Weeks’s missives ensured that the sentiments were made public, thus both informing and reassuring the greater community of the laudable nature and objectives of Freemasonry. The late eighteenth century saw a proliferation of clubs and societies throughout the British Atlantic. Sociability and, in particular the act of gathering in organized clubs, was also important to many of the inhabitants of Halifax and Quebec City. Like the theatre, coffeehouse, and the newspaper itself, societies provided a venue of sociability outside of the purview of family or religious obligation where members of the colonial print community could gather in the two capitals. Literacy, though not required for the physical act of assembly, became increasingly essential if one wanted to stay informed of association activities both at home and abroad. Through print, members of these organizations – many of whom were also participants in the colonial print community – could obtain new transatlantic perspectives on association life, or have underlying norms of associative propriety and conduct reinforced. Associations that, by their nature, represented smaller communities of interest within the capital were also viewed by some as elite gatherings for the enjoyment of elite society. Newspapers in the two capitals were particularly employed – as in the case of theatres and coffeehouses – to legitimize the elite form of interaction that most clubs and organized societies were perceived to offer. In the particular case of clubs and societies in Halifax and Quebec City, this legitimization was achieved by favourable accounts emanating from members of the print community that demonstrated propriety ­behind closed doors and a greater, charitable public concern toward colonial society at large.

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6 With the “approbation of a numerous and respectable audience”: Newspapers and the Public Acceptance of Theatre Theatre was a welcome diversion for William Smith, the former Chief Justice of New York. As often as twice a week, he would take in a play in London’s famed theatre district.1 Plays offered respite from the daily and often frustrating routine of inquiring over loyalist compensation, attending government functions, and awaiting a rumoured new position as Chief Justice of Quebec. On 1 April 1784, Smith visited London’s Drury Lane playhouse for the first time. This particular evening he was suitably impressed with both the production of Douglas and the theatre: “It is not so large as Covent Garden but every way else the superior Play House: better scenery, better actors.” His highest praise, however, was reserved for a woman he referred to as the “imitable” Mrs. Siddons.2 By the mid-1780s, the talented Sarah Siddons had obtained a nearly cultlike status, beguiling London society including Smith. Siddon’s performance in Jane Shore, it was widely reported, once forced “two ladies among the spectators [to] fall into hysterics, and one of them had to be carried out, laughing convulsively.”3 Smith would return to Drury Lane often to see several other plays – including Jane Shore on two further occasions

1 In his diaries, Smith mentions attending the theatre no fewer than twenty times in his two years’ residence in London. He states a preference for the Covent Garden theatre in general and is quite critical of the Drury Lane theatre. Nonetheless, it is Drury Lane that he frequents most often having a particularly fondness for the “imitable” Mrs. Siddons. See Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume i, 25, 27, 30, 42, 54, 82–3, 154, 158, 170–1, 202, 205, 207, 211, 212, 221, 225, 287, and Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume ii, 31, 51, 58, 78, 90, 126. 2 “Mrs. Siddons is imitable … In grief she excels all Description, and frequently stole a tear from me unawares.” Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume i, 42. 3 Booth, ed., Three Tragic Actresses (1996), quoted in Shaughnessy, “Siddons, Sarah (1755–1831),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

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– and, regardless of the quality of the other performers, would never fail to write about Siddons with the highest regard.4 For him, theatre was more than a mere amusement. Writing to his wife who was still living in New York City, Smith observed that plays furnished “subjects for Conversation, and to be wholly ignorant of them, is to be a Miser, or ill bred.”5 Smith even took his son, also living in London, to the theatre in the belief that it would give him valuable lessons in elocution and oratory.6 When Smith received the long-awaited appointment as the Chief Justice of Quebec in 1787, he moved to a colonial society that was also captivated by the sociability, spectacle, and even utility of theatre. Although far from London, residents of Quebec City – like Smith – not only attended theatrical performances, but read and debated the value of theatre in print. Print is central to the study of theatre during the second half of the eighteenth century in Halifax and Quebec City. It records the opinions of the colonial print community in regard to plays and dramatic activities and it is one of the only remaining primary sources that accurately detail the types, frequency, and attendance of theatrical productions. Theatre supporters, much like members of colonial societies, used the press to promote theatre’s utility to the public. One can argue that, like the newspaper culture and club customs of Halifax and Quebec City, the roots of an eighteenth-century theatre scene were laid before the American Revolution, and later flourished with the arrival of loyalist playwrights, poets, and audiences. Colonial theatre offered a welcome entertainment and a forum for public interaction throughout the year and particularly in the winter season.7 A prologue recited in a Halifax theatre in 1773 and then printed in the newspaper lamented: “The summer’s suns, no more our spirits cheer, / And dreary winter desolates the year.” Underscoring the gravity of the situation, the narrator continued that “inclement skies prevent

4 Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume 1, 154; ibid., volume 2, 51; and ibid., volume 1, 207. 5 Letter William Smith to Janet Smith, 3 February March 1784. See footnote in Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume 1, 27. 6 Letter William Smith to Janet Smith, 29 February 1784. See footnote in Upton, ed., The Diary and Selected Papers of Chief Justice William Smith, volume 1, 27. 7 The length of the theatre season varied depending on the colony. In late-1780 Nova Scotia, the season followed a similar fall-winter pattern as was experienced in London. [See Jeffery, ed., Dyott’s Diary, 62]. From an analysis of playbills, in Quebec, it appears that the season spanned throughout the year. See “#499. Quebec Theatre [Play Bills], 1786” and “#540. Quebec Theatre [Play Bill], 1787,” in Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 231, 251.

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sports by day, / And tedious nights are spent in cards and tea.” Yet, as the prologue concluded, it was quite clear that the cure for this dreary situation could be found in the theatre: “since such the case, with ardour we engage / To furnish entertainment from the Stage. / Our slipper’d heroes we once more enrol, / To combat all the passions fowl.”8 Theatre in Quebec City during the late eighteenth century can be seen in similar terms. Plays gave voice to the pride, fears, humour, and tears of the audience. The productions expressed new trends, reinforced old clichés, and criticized society, all couched in familiar and widely held cultural references. Although drama can be seen as a spoken form of interaction in Halifax and Quebec City, its primary audience and critics were members of the colonial print community. For them the debate over the virtues and vices of theatre, or over the expression of the messages plays conveyed, could not be kept to the confines of polite oral conversation. In a sense, members of the colonial print community used print to expand the audience beyond the theatre walls. These messages uniformly rang with dramatic passion and patriotism, extolling the civilizing benefits of British governance, literature, and science. The print community, not afraid of voicing divergent opinions, were nonetheless unified in their use of the press to shape the place for theatre in a British colony. Through much of this period, theatre took place in the few public spaces that existed in both Halifax and Quebec City. Plays were staged in back rooms or upper storeys of taverns and coffee houses until the construction of dedicated theatre buildings. In Halifax, for example, a public house known as the Pontac was used as the primary theatre space until the building of the Grand Theatre by the British garrison in 1789.9 A similar situation existed in Quebec City until the 1780s and 1790s, when several purpose-built performance spaces opened – including the Thespian Theatre, the Patagonian Theatre,10 and the converted former coffeehouse of Thomas Ferguson.11 As the eighteenth century unfolded, theatrical performances, performers, and performance spaces increased in Halifax and Quebec City. Print, instrumental in expanding the purview of theatre, also chronicled the fundamental details and growth of the art form. From advertisements and reports found in the press (starting in the 1760s and continuing to the end of the century) it is clear that professional theatre and amateur productions were popular in the colonial capitals. (See appendix II.) In

8 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 21 December 1773, 3. 9 Bains, “Painted Scenery and Decorations in Canadian Theatres,” 111. 10 Lemire, ed., La vie littéraire au Québec, 196. 11 Quebec Herald, 2 February 1789, 103.

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both Halifax and Quebec City, these advertisements followed a similar format where the public would often be told of the staging of two works with various skits, songs, and dramatic interludes. The advertisements would also list the names of the players, the time of the show, specific seating instructions, and the cost of the performance. For example, when the American Company of Comedians first performed in Halifax in 1768, five shillings was charged for box seating, three shillings for the pit, and one shilling six pence for general admission in the gallery.12 By the 1780s, the price of admission in Halifax had dropped slightly, averaging around a dollar, or three shillings, per seat.13 In 1789, the newly constructed theatres in Halifax and Quebec City that had both main floors and galleries saw the introduction of a graduated admission scheme in Quebec City, and the reintroduction of one in Halifax. In Halifax, the “first pit” seats cost three shillings, while the “second pit” seats were a slightly more reasonable two shillings.14 Quebec City theatres advertised “Front Seats half a dollar, gallery a quarter of a dollar.”15 Admission fees often equalled the daily pay of the average colonial labourer. However, the relatively high prices did not necessarily dissuade prospective theatre patrons – some of whom were quick to take advantage of any means that would reduce the admission cost. One particular scheme employed by less scrupulous theatregoers in Quebec involved making a habit of paying for cheaper tickets and then advancing to the more premium seating. This practice led to public reproaches in the press. “It having been reported to the Managers that many persons who only purchase tickets for the Back Seats, have made practice of going into the front, and likewise behaving in an unbecoming manner,” an advertisement for the 9 April performance of the comedy The Hypocrite warned: “proper persons will be stationed in different parts of the house, to prevent any thing of the kind in future: – and notwithstanding the variety of performances, no time will be delayed between each, in order that the whole may be finished at an early hour.”16 Such behaviour was also not unknown in Halifax, as a print remonstrance with theatregoers in the Weekly Chronicle attests in 1795: 12 Nova-Scotia Gazette, 25 August 1768, 3. 13 See “tickets one dollar each,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 7 June 1785, 4; “tickets at three shillings each,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 30 December 1788, 3; and “tickets at one dollar each” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 6 January 1789, 3. 14 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 9 June 1789, 2. 15 These prices were listed for the 9 April 1790 for the benefit performance of the comedy The Hypocrite and the farce the Rival Candidates, see Quebec Herald, 29 March 1790, 146. 16 Quebec Herald, 29 March 1790, 146.

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The managers of the theatre having been informed that several patrons have been let into the Pits by paying money at the doors, contrary to their positive orders, which they issued to prevent the Pits being overcrowded, will be much obliged to any one who has gained admission by that method to prevent such irregularities in future.17

The overcrowding by dishonest ticket holders recorded in newspapers offers another example of the popularity of the theatre in Halifax and Quebec City. It also further demonstrates the use of print to regulate and control the community. For the money spent on admission, it appears that patrons were treated to relatively lavish productions of well-known British plays. During the 1780s in Quebec City over £69 was spent by local players on newspaper advertisements for productions and the printing of playbills to the Quebec Gazette printing office.18 In 1796, one Halifax production spent over £60 on costumes and sets.19 A few years earlier William Dyott, diarist and treasurer of the new Grand Theatre in Halifax, reported earnings of £400 in the first year, which was almost entirely “expended on the house.”20 Four hundred pounds was no small sum in Dyott’s era, being four times the annual salary of the Speaker of the House, or of the Solicitor General. The amount also represented the entire yearly operating budget of the newly opened Academy in nearby Windsor, Nova Scotia.21 Such sums spent on theatrical productions underscore the great importance that the theatre held to patrons, including members of the colonial print community, as a form of acceptable sociability in the capitals.

17 Weekly Chronicle, 17 January 1795, 3 18 This number is calculated using the “Brown / Neilson Shop Records” compiled from several disparate sources by Fleming and Alston for the years 1780–88. £69 is a conservative estimate for the decade as thespian William Moore started his Quebec Herald print shop in 1788 and would have undertaken several printing orders himself. Correspondingly, orders for theatre-related materials decline in the Quebec Gazette records after 1788. See “Brown / Neilson Shop Records” in Fleming and Alston, Early Canadian Printing. 19 Bains, “Painted Scenery and Decorations in Canadian Theatres,” 111. 20 Jeffery, ed., Dyott’s Diary, 62. 21 University of King’s College Archives, 1987–12, Board of Governors, “No. 1 Bd. of Governors 1787–1814,” 5. The only civil servants paid more than the solicitor general and the speaker of the House were the treasurer, the supreme court justices, and the lieutenant governor. See “An Act for applying certain Monies therein mentioned for the Services of the Year One thousand Seven hundred Eighty-nine, and for appropriating the Supplies Granted in this Session of General Assembly, and for funding the Debt of the Province,” 26 George III. c. 5, The temporary acts of the general assemblies of His Majesty’s province of Nova Scotia, 1789, 315.

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During the second half of the eighteenth century, theatre became an increasingly prominent topic in the newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City. Domestically produced print advertised the arrival of new shows and reviews of past productions. Local booksellers, for example, advertised plays for sale with their lists of new publications and sometimes took out separate advertisements for particularly popular theatrical works.22 Even before the first known theatrical performances in Halifax in 1768, the local newspapers would publish soliloquies and prologues from popular London productions, or update readers with the latest stories from the world of drama through columns entitled “Theatrical Intelligence.”23 Members in the colonial print community not only purchased theatrical works or read about them in the newspaper, they also turned to the press to debate the merits of theatre as a form of elite sociability, as well as its moral influence on colonial society. Theatre in British Nova Scotia and Quebec was never restricted by colonial authorities – unlike in England where it was subject to licensing24 or in New England and Pennsylvania where it was temporarily criminalized.25 Nonetheless, it still had its critics, who turned to the press to express their dissenting views. “Among the world’s vanities, I should have numbered the Play-House entertainments,” a letter found in the Nova-Scotia Gazette in 1774. Launching into a tirade against the entire theatre industry, the author continued that: “Their makers, their actors and promoters: which (after all the late expence of sweat and struggle to defend them) are generally such wretched instructors of the age; as to teach and credit nothing more than its profaneness and debauchery.”26 Indeed, one common thread found in letters critical of plays argued that the danger of the art form was how it made vice look virtuous. In plays, one anonymous reader observed: “lewdness is spoken, 22 For examples see “Plays and Farces,” in an advertisement by Robert Fletcher, bookseller, Nova-Scotia Gazette, 20 October 1768, 4; “To-morrow Morning will be publish’d / and sold … The jealous wife,” Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 3 April 1770, 111. 23 For examples see “epilogue, spoken in the Character of Mrs. Partlet, in the Spirit of Contradiction,” Nova-Scotia Gazette, 24 September 1767, 2–3; “Theatrical Intelligence,” Nova-Scotia Gazette, 10 September 1767, 2; “Prologue from False Delicacy, Spoken by Mrs. King,” and “Epilogue, Spoken by Mrs. Dancer, written by D. Garrick,” Nova-Scotia Gazette, 26 May 1768, 2. 24 The Licensing Act of 1737 limited theatre to a select number of theatres in London and banned it from the rest of England. Early performers had to strike specific deals with a town in order to provide entertainment. An official petition to parliament had to be made to acquire an official theatre license in towns outside of the capital. See Price, Theatre in the Age of Garrick, 175–95. 25 Silverman, A Cultural History of the American Revolution, 66–8. 26 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 8 February 1774, 4.

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not in double entendres, but in plain English … Virtue appears in sackcloth, and vice in embroidery, rakes go off with success and sober men with disappointment.”27 “Enter not therefore into the Play-House,” read another extract submitted by a “constant reader” using the pseudonym M.F.: It’s the Palace of Asmodens, the Seat of Lewdness, the Nursery of Debauchery, it’s with us as Fornices were at Rome … for my Part I am of Opinion that a Christian cannot with a safer Conscience enter into the Play-House than into a Brothel … Temptation is stronger on the Stage, and more inviting, the Blackness of The Vice is under a Disguise; it blanch’d over with all the Art of Wit and Gawdry so that nothing appears but the Charming Part, which fascinates the Eyes, captivates the Ears, doges the Intellect, and fires the Passions.28

One letter, purportedly penned by a group of like-minded theatre opponents, asked readers to take into account the commentary of venerable classical thinkers. “Please to publish these few Quotations, and will oblige several of your Readers. The Sense of virtuous Ancients, both Heathens, and Christians, about Plays and Play-Houses,” read their letter published in 1770 in the Nova-Scotia Gazette. Theatre, some ancient Romans believed, would “bring in foreign vice; and the Debaucheries of Greece among them. The old Roman virtue would be lost, and the Spirits of the People emasculated.” Insisting that theatre was an inherently flawed and corrupt art form, the authors then cited St Augustine’s view of the craft, which criticized dramatic productions as “the Blemishes of human Nature, the Plague of Reason, and the Ruin of Virtue.”29 Theatre, for these readers, came into direct conflict with rational thought, Christian values and was an abhorrent revival of pagan Rome. It was believed that the power of the live performance could overwhelm the senses, making vice attractive and awakening the aspects of human nature that needed to be kept in constant control. While some correspondents were blunt in their criticisms, others fashioned their displeasure in more ironic or satirical ways that in themselves demonstrated a nuanced awareness of the content and popularity of theatre. In 1768, when the rumour was confirmed that the American Company of Comedians was to perform in Halifax, a flurry of letters was sent from concerned colonists to the Nova-Scotia Gazette. One author, using the pseudonym S.W., purported to be a farmer who – after the haying 27 Ibid., 16 March 1773, 4. 28 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser, 23 January 1770, 30–1. 29 Ibid., 13 February 1770, 56.

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season – hoped to attend one of the performances. In the letter, S.W. cannot contain his excitement for the plays and writes with anticipation: “I hope that the Provoked Wife is among the Number [of performances]: Sir John Brute is an amiable Character. Many of us will be with you when our Harvest is ended.”30 The farmer laments, however, that due to the lack of currency in the province he would have to pay in grass, and solicited “any Person who wants Grain or Hay, I will supply him at his own Price provided he will now advance me three or four pounds for this Purpose.”31 While earnest in tone, several inconsistencies make one wonder if the letter is instead a satire criticizing those people (such as farmers) who would find plays entertaining. One inconsistency that puts the veracity of the letter in question can be seen in the farmer’s request for money to pay for tickets. At a price of just over one shilling per general admission ticket, the farmer’s request for three to four pounds to cover admission costs would have been seen as excessive by contemporary readers, perhaps belying an unhealthy appetite for plays and their immoral situations. However, the greatest clue to the true intentions of the author is his reference to the tragedy The Provoked Wife and approbation of the antagonist Sir John Brute. Brute, well known for his monstrous cruelty, was a character that only a philistine would find “amiable.” S.W.’s letter provides a further illustration of the complexity behind the contributions to colonial newspapers. In his criticism of theatre, S.W. also demonstrates how well versed he actually was in the art form – or at least the production of The Provoked Wife. His letter shows that participants in the colonial print community not only employed the press, but could amuse themselves in their productions, creating personas and offering opinions that could be outlandish as well as earnest. Further underscoring the complexity of the newspaper discourse is the fact that such satire was not always appreciated or understood by other members of the colonial print community. Indeed, the idea planted by S.W. that a farmer would need ready cash to purchase tickets was plausible enough that an offer of assistance appeared in the next edition of the Nova-Scotia Gazette from an unsuspecting correspondent.32 In a similar tone, another satirical letter (found in the same edition of the Gazette as S.W.’s letter) tells of a “poor Girl” who is excited at the arrival of the plays and, in particular, of any potentially unmarried players. In this case, the woman who can not afford tickets writes of her intention to sell her clothing to buy tickets, including “a brand new Hat and Cloak 30 Nova-Scotia Gazette, 18 August 1768, 3. 31 Ibid. 32 Nova-Scotia Gazette, 25 August 1768, 2.

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given to me by a worthy married Gentleman [and] several Shifts and under Petticoats, little the worse for wear.”33 The “woman” then signs the letter Doll Tearsheet, a name shared with Falstaff’s prostitute lover in Shakespeare’s Henry IV. Both letters use the trope of selling belongings or wares to acquire tickets, and both satirize the lower classes (farmers and prostitutes) who are purportedly susceptible to the immoral charms of the play. Both letters also ironically require knowledge of popular theatre to fully understand the criticisms that are being levied. In a final paradoxical twist, in crafting these satires the letter writers were creating characters whose roles were played out on a print stage for a ready audience formed by members of the colonial print community. Such ironies were, however, not lost on all of their contemporaries. One theatre advocate writing to the Nova-Scotia Gazette remarked: “All the World’s a Stage, / And all the Men and Women merely Players. / This sensible Reflection of old Shakespear’s, seems as if left as a lasting Characteristic of all Ages; a general Satyr on Mankind, and a tacit Compliment to the Theatre. Every Man has some particular Character to support … Yet there are some Dispositions who never appear but in their natural Characters.”34 Clearly, newspapers were an effective tool both for those critical of and those in favour of the theatre. While we have seen opponents of theatre turning to the press to voice their concerns, the printed word was also used by its advocates to display displeasure at particular performances that were deemed less than acceptable. Colonial audiences, like their transatlantic counterparts, enjoyed the occasional tragedy and were upset when the performance failed to meet their standards. “When the Theatrical Campaign commenced,” the correspondent Observator wrote to the Halifax Journal in 1796: I hoped, as did many more of the respectable inhabitants of this town, that we should obtain a little rational amusement for our money; especially when we were told of the Auxiliaries from Quebec, and the sister of the immortal Siddons. I have constantly attended the Theatre with some part of my Family ever since it opened, and invariably have seen more to be disgusted with, than pleased at; for, instead of sterling Sense, we receive Grimace and wretched Buffoonry.35

In a final blow, making reference to the cost of colonial theatre and his awareness of the situation elsewhere in the Atlantic world, Observator concluded: “Good Gentlemen reflect, we pay as high a price for our 33 Ibid., 18 August 1768, 3. 34 Ibid., 11 August 1768, 3. 35 Halifax Journal, 3 March 1796, 3.

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entertainments as they do in York or Philadelphia … do not palm flat insipid Perry upon us, when you can and may afford to treat us with enlivening Champaigne.”36 As we saw earlier, relatively large amounts were expended on theatrical productions in Halifax and Quebec City and tickets to such productions were relatively dear. With the elevated costs of theatre, expectations were also high. These expectations – as Observator’s letter underscores – were not always met. Printers in both Halifax and Quebec City were unabashed supporters of colonial theatre. Reviews of new theatrical works were universally favourable, observing that performances brought together amusement, rational behaviour, and respectable audiences in a manner reminiscent of that experienced in Great Britain. “Last Friday evening the WestIndian, a Comedy,” the printer of the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle wrote in March of 1787: was presented, for the second time, to a crowded and respectable audience; and received the tribute of applause due to the abilities of the performers. – The avidity with which the tickets for this play have been purchased up, marks the high sense the public entertain of its merit, and proves the choice of the gentlemen under whose care the entertainment is conducted, to be perfectly judicious. – And this Evening, the West-Indian, a Comedy, will be performed a Third Time.37

Likewise, after the “Gentlemen of the Navy, Army & town”38 had put on a performance of The Merchant of Venice39 and the comedy The Citizen in Halifax’s new Grand Theatre on 26 March 1789,40 an equally favourable review of the performance could be found in the Halifax press: On Thursday Evening last the New Theatre, in Argyle-Street was opened … The characters of the Comedy [The Merchant of Venice] were, in general, supported with much propriety, and met the approbation of a numerous and respectable audience. The Farce [the Citizen] is replete with humour … [and drew bursts of applause from the audience almost every scene.41

36 Ibid. 37 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 20 March 1787, 3. 38 Ibid., 24 February 1789, 3. 39 This production was also one of the last plays staged in the old Theatre Pontac on 13 January 1789. It boasted the same amateur actors and was for “Public Charity.” NovaScotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 6 January 1789, 3. 40 The exuberant diarist and treasurer for the theatre Lieutenant William Dyott wrote of the performance: “It was as complete a thing for the size as I ever saw.” Jeffery, ed., Dyott’s Diary, volume 1, 61. 41 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 3 March 1789, 3.

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In Quebec City, the thespian-turned-publisher Moore often included reviews of recent performances in his Quebec Herald, more often complimenting than criticizing recently staged productions. In November 1789, after the staging of the comedy The Recruiting Officer and the farce The Connaught Wife, Moore remarked that “both pieces would not have disgraced a regular theatre,”42 and later in the year observed that the staging of The Wonder and The Spirit of Contradiction “generally received highly merited applause.”43 Colonial prints also tell of plays being warmly received by “crowded and respectable” or “numerous and respectable” audiences, with the performances receiving “great” or “universal” applause.44 As these examples illustrate, those critical of theatre were not the only members of the colonial print community to turn to the press to voice their opinion. In both capitals, theatre was also promoted by printers as a well-crafted artistic performance, enjoyed by the most respectable members of society in a fashion reminiscent of that of the theatres of Great Britain. The enthusiasm that printers exhibited in promoting theatre, in particular, could be seen as rooted in personal bias, economic self-interest as well as an affinity with the critical objectives of the art form. Moore’s embrace of colonial theatre, for example, can be attributed to his experiences as an actor throughout the British Atlantic. Furthermore, both professional companies and amateur theatre companies that staged productions in the two capitals – as the records of William Brown’s Quebec Gazette attest – proved lucrative for printers who produced the requisite tickets, playbills, posters, and newspaper advertisements for the shows.45 Yet, as we have seen, newspaper printers were also ardent supporters of free expression and the advancement of the literary awareness of colonial society. Furthermore, as cultural historian Jean-Christophe Agnew observes in his provocative examination of theatre and the market place, the eighteenth century experienced an intellectual movement, underpinned by the writings of Shaftesbury and like-minded writers, towards “the spectator.”46 The Enlightenment saw an increasing importance in the belief of the impartial, disinterested observer. Theatre audiences at this time, Agnew argues, can also be seen in a similar light.47 Newspaper 42 Quebec Herald, 16 November 1789, 445. 43 Ibid., 17 December 1789, 29. 44 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 20 March 1787, 3; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 3 March 1789, 3; Quebec Herald, 17 December 1789, 29, 28 January 1790, 73, and 7 March 1791, 124. 45 For example see Fleming and Alston, Early Canadian Printing, 464–5. 46 Agnew, Worlds Apart, 162. 47 Ibid., 162–3.

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printers, as we have seen, also shared this philosophy, perceiving their colonial productions as containing essential, unbiased observations of how the world really was. Thus, their efforts in fashioning theatre as ­socially acceptable can be considered a fortuitous confluence of self-­ interest, personal profit, and an ethos that drove them to be spectators of the world in the promotion of the public good. In spite of dissenting views amongst members of the colonial print community, theatre would eventually become an acceptable part of elite sociability in both late eighteenth-century Quebec City and Halifax. Perhaps most tellingly, neither the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, nor the Executive Council of Quebec took steps to ban productions as had been the case in several neighbouring American colonies. The acceptance of theatre was due, in no small part, to the way the print community in the capitals fashioned theatre as an acceptable, respectable, and even benevolent pursuit. Professional theatre in the eighteenth century, however, was not normally billed as a munificent pursuit. Quite practically, it was a means for actors to make a livelihood, and as such, performances were normally touted as being for the benefit of the members of the theatre company. Such was the case when Moore was acting with the American Company in Jamaica. The 22 December 1781 performance of Belle’s Stratagem, for example, was staged “for the benefit of Mr. Moore.”48 Similarly, the American Company or other professional players who visited Halifax and Quebec City followed this model of payment. While professional acting troops continued to visit Halifax and Quebec City, by the last decades of the eighteenth century theatrical performances became increasingly amateur in nature and the money raised went increasingly to charity. During this era there were few ways to raise funds for charitable purposes outside of the established churches. Although lotteries and special subscriptions were a popular means for the government to raise funds, they were rarely employed for charity predicated on unexpected hardship. Instead, plays – with the stated official approbation of the governor or lieutenant governor – became the means to bridge this charitable gap in late eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City. One of the largest groups of amateur actors at this time came from the British Army garrisons in Halifax and Quebec City. The garrison tradition of theatre has longstanding roots, seen as an important means to break up the monotony of military life and offer much-needed entertainment

48 Supplement to the Royal Gazette, 22 December 1781, 301.

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on the colonial periphery.49 Yet, members of the British Army were not alone in their colonial productions – they were joined by members of the Naval establishments, by prominent merchants, and occasionally by students who performed well-known comedies and farces accompanied by songs, humorous lectures, or verse, dance, pantomime, and other artistic performances. One of the first such events in Halifax was staged on 20 April 1773. It was advertised that, on that evening, The Suspicious Husband and The Citizen were to be performed “for the Benefit of the Poor, or the Town,” at the Pontac for two shillings six pence admission.50 After the event, printer Anthony Henry reported that the event had been a success: “On Friday last was perform’d by the Gentlemen of the Army and Navy, a Play for the benefit of the Poor, at which was a considerable Collection, which is to be distributed to the indigent Families, and other old and poor people by the Minister and Church-wardens of this Place.”51 In this manner, theatre was made publicly palatable and could even be considered unofficially institutionalized through the use of prominent citizens and military officers as players. Over a decade later, the use of theatre for charity had become commonplace in both Halifax and Quebec City. “We have the Pleasure of Informing our Readers,” one such notice in the Nova-Scotia Gazette read, “that on Account of the Severity of the Winter, a Number of Officers of the Army, intend performing a Play for the Benefit of poor confined Debtors, and other public Charities.”52 The following theatre season another group of amateur actors made it very clear in the printed advertisement that: “It is the Intention of the Performers, after defraying the necessary Expenses of the Theatre, &c. to appropriate the Remainder to charitable Purposes.”53 In Quebec City a similar situation can be observed. Moore, upon the opening of the new theatre in 1789, could not speak highly enough of the motives of the performers and the performance:

49 For more on the Garrison Theatre Tradition and its importance to colonial society and the development of Canadian theatre see Houlé, L’histoire du Théàtre au Canada, 35–44; Benson and Conolly, English-Canadian Theatre, 3–7; Lemire, ed., La vie littéraire au Québec, 184–7; O’Neill, “Halifax and the Garrison Theatre Tradition,” 145–63; Bains, English Canadian Theatre, 23–34; Rewa, Garrison and Amateur Theatricals in Québec City and Kingston During the British Régime ; and Ostola, A Very Public Presence, 22–3, 207–11. 50 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 20 April 1773, 4. 51 Ibid., 27 April 1773, 3. 52 Ibid., 20 February 1787, 3. 53 Ibid., 30 December 1788, 3.

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What makes it of more consequence is, the male characters are supported by young gentlemen in the garrison, who are inspired to it through motives of charity. Such a laudable undertaking shews the goodness of their hearts, and it is expected there will be a splendid and crouded audience, we can therefore with propriety and justice say with Collin M’Leod. ‘A’hae ne’ cauld hearts that occupy cauld climates.’54

In reporting the performance the following week Moore again highlighted the importance of instructing the public on the charitable efforts of the players: “Charity being the sole motive for the exertions of the Gentlemen, who pay their addresses to the enchanting Thalia.”55 Not one to merely report on theatre and its virtues, the next year Moore staged a performance of his popular Lecture on Heads solely for “the benefit of the sufferers by the late fire” that had devastated Quebec’s lower town on Christmas Day.56 Theatre thus became an important means for members of the print community to entertain themselves and shape and promote the public good. While professional companies continued to visit the capitals, increasingly the theatre performances promoted in the newspapers were the work of amateurs (many of whom can also be considered participants in the colonial print community). Theatre’s popularity was also in no small part rooted in its ability to reinforce elite identity by reconnecting colonists with established or shared beliefs. Postcolonial studies of British theatre have brought to light how the concept of empire and the “other” was dealt with in Georgian drama.57 As historian Kathleen Wilson writes “theatre did much to familiarize audiences with emergent typologies of gender, race, class, and nation, socializing British people into recognizing difference, especially the historical difference and distinctiveness of the English nation. Once reaching the diversity of colonial littorals, theatre became a distinctive ‘rite of Britishness.’”58 A review of the types of Englishlanguage productions advertised in the press of Halifax and Quebec City reveals that colonists liked both traditional plays and what they believed to be the current tastes of the London theatres. Advertisements for new plays in the colonial press often touted their popularity in London such as the announcement found in the Quebec

54 Quebec Herald, 2 February 1789, 103. 55 Ibid., 9 February 1789, 111. 56 Ibid., 22 February 1790, 105. 57 Nussbaum, “The Theatre of Empire: Racial Counterfeit, Racial Realism,” in A New Imperial History, ed. Wilson, 71–91; Worrall, Harlequin Empire. 58 Wilson, “Rowe’s Fair Penitent as Global History,” 232.

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Herald in 1790 that read “theatre. On Friday Evening the 26th instant will be presented a New Comedy, (never performed here) in universal estimation in England called the Disbanded Officer or the Baroness of Bruchsal.”59 It is perhaps unsurprising that this English adaption of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s play, which detailed the exploits of a retired Prussian officer, resonated with audiences in the garrison town.60 However, part of its colonial popularity was also due to the fact that it received “universal estimation” in England. Indeed, colonial tastes were not unlike those of London; they favoured Shakespeare, modern comedies, and tragedies.61 From newspaper reports over a twenty-five year period starting in 1768, over twenty-nine different plays were known to have been performed in Halifax and seventy-six different plays in Quebec City. (See appendix II.) The vast majority of these performances were British comedies, farces, and musicals with the plays of the mid-eighteenth-century London actor David Garrick being the most popular. While colonial tastes preferred comedic fare, the staging of more emotive works was not unknown. Jane Shore, the tragedy that had beguiled William Smith whilst he was in London in 1786, was performed in Quebec City the same year62 and again at Mr Menut’s Theatre in Quebec City in 1789.63 In publicizing the Quebec staging of I’ll Tell You What, that same year Moore wrote that the play “is the production of Mrs. Inchbald; whose abilities in Dramatic composition, requires no comment: it had a great run at the Hay-Market, and afterwards, (with permission) at Covent Garden; and in the Dramatic phrase is a living Piece, which its frequent representation fully confirms.”64 Comparisons of colonial productions to those in London were an important means to connect with theatre-going members of the colonial print community. Theatre offered these audiences both entertaining stories and a means to connect with trends perceived to be popular in Britain.

59 Quebec Herald, 22 February 1790, 105. 60 Johnston, The Disbanded Officer; or, the Baroness of Bruchsal: A Comedy As Preformed in the Theatre Royal in the Hay-Market (London: T. Cadell, 1786). 61 The London theatre was quite conservative, with a third of all plays at Drury Lane being written by Shakespeare. The other two thirds were a mix of comedy and drama; some were new, but the majority were repeat productions dating back to the turn of the eighteenth century. See Price, Theatre in the Age of Garrick, 196–7. 62 Three hundred play bills at a cost of fifteen shillings were ordered for this production on 14 September 1786. Fleming and Alston, Early Canadian Printing, 473. 63 Quebec Herald, 30 November 1789, 11. Smith would have been in the city at the time, but it is unknown if he attended the Canadian version of the play. 64 Quebec Herald, 16 March 1789, 153.

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Not only did audiences in Halifax and Quebec City attend plays that were popular in Britain, a similar corpus of works was staged between the two capitals and often repeated over several seasons. In some cases, a particular play would be performed in one city within weeks of it being staged in the other. For example, Richard Cumberland’s comedy The West-Indian was produced no less than three times over three years in both Halifax and Quebec City,65 proving especially popular with Halifax audiences (for whom one production was staged successively three weeks in a row).66 Later in March 1789, the Halifax audience of the Grand Theatre were treated to a joint production of The Beaux Stratagem and The Citizen.67 The subsequent month in Quebec, that city’s theatre mounted a separate production of the same two plays.68 It is perhaps no coincidence that plays like these – with merchant or colonial characters in provincial settings – were received so well by audiences in Halifax and Quebec. For example, George Farquar’s The Beaux Stratagem tells the story of two ne’er-do-wells, Archer and Aimwell, who travel to provincial towns in England to take advantage of young heiresses.69 On the other hand (though again playing upon the device of a character being out of his element), Cumberland’s The West-Indian recounts the story of a young colonial libertine who charms London with his non-courtesan ways.70 In Arthur Murphy’s The Citizen, the character of penny-pinching Old Philpot and his mercantile mantras such as “trade must be minded – A penny sav’d, is a penny got” (not that dissimilar from those penned by that prominent eighteenth-century American Benjamin Franklin) would have also undoubtedly rung true to many in Halifax and Quebec City.71 English-language audiences in both capitals demonstrated a taste for

65 The West-Indian was performed with the farce The Divorce on 21 February 1789 and patrons were informed that “after defraying the necessary expenses, the surplus will be given to the poor.” Quebec Herald, 16 February 1789, 113. 66 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 20 March 1787, 3. 67 Ibid., 24 March 1789, 3. 68 Quebec Herald, 30 March 1789, 165. 69 Farquhar, The Beaux Stratagem. A Comedy. As it is Acted at the Queen’s Theatre in the Hay-Market. By Her Majesty’s Sworn Comedians (London: Bernard Lintott, 1707). 70 Cumberland, The West Indian: A Comedy. As it is Performed at the Theatre Royal in DruryLane. By the Author of The Brothers (London: Printed for W. Griffin, 1771). 71 Some of Old Philpot’s more Franklin-esque mantras include “He that hath money in his purse, won’t want a head on his shoulders,” and “Rome was not built in a day – Fortunes are made by degrees.” Others were less like that old American printers’ words, but nonetheless provided a poignant satire of British mercantile practices, such as “Friendship has nothing to do with money.” Murphy, The Citizen. A Farce. As it is performed at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden (London: G. Kearsly, 1763), 12.

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British theatre that included not only the standards of Georgian theatre but also its most current tragedies, farces, and satirical productions. One of the most popular satires to play in both Halifax and Quebec City was George Alexander Stevens’s Lecture on Heads, noted for being one of the longest running shows in eighteenth-century London.72 A “lecture on heads” was a commonly used phrase to describe an oration on various topics, or headings. Stevens’s particular lecture addressed several topics such as “Astronomy,” “Poetry,” and “Architecture,” and over three dozen typical characters in society such as “The Lawyer,” “The Quaker,” the “Old Bachelor,” and the “New Married Lady,” all of whom he brutally satirized for their speech, habits, and disposition. In a twist of comic double entendre, Stevens performed this lecture upon heads using actual miniature heads that could be perched on his arm and that were carved and costumed to accentuate a respective character’s features. Part of the lasting appeal of Stevens’s Lecture on Heads rested in the fact that the “heads” could be refined or substituted as popular taste changed. Stevens’s popularity can also be attributed to his witty turns of phrase and insightful social commentary, prompting one of his contemporaries to note that he “made folly hide her head in the highest places, and vice tremble in the bosoms of the great.”73 Unsurprisingly, Stevens’s critical gaze also extended to the printed word and those who consumed it. The average literate Londoner, Stevens observed, was too easily swayed by the press and prone to reading newspaper accounts too literally and uncritically: “This is one of those many thousand Heads [takes the head] who swarm in and about London,” he wrote: whose times and minds are divided between the affairs of state and the affairs of a kitchen. He was anxious after venison and politics; he believed every cook to be a great genius; and to know how to dress a turtle comprehended all the arts and sciences together. He was always hunting after newspapers, to read about battles; and imagined soldiers and sailors were only made to be knock’d on the head, that he might read an account of it in the papers. He read every political pamphlet

72 By 1766, over 200 successive performances of Stevens’s lecture had occurred in London with six editions of the pirated text published. According to a posthumous publication of the lecture’s text, after its run in London, Stevens toured “almost every principal in England and Ireland” before returning to the London stage with a revised version that was “almost a new performance.” See A Lecture on Heads; Which has been exhibited upwards of Two Hundred successive Nights, to crouded Audiences, and met with the most universal Applause (London: J. Pridden, 1766); A Lecture on Heads; written by George Alexander Stevens, with additions by Mr. Pilon, As Delivered by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes, at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, and in Various Parts of the Kingdom. To Which is Added an Essay on Satire (London: G. Kearsley, 1785), iii–iv. 73 A Lecture on Heads; written by George Alexander Stevens, with additions by Mr. Pilon, 2.

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that was published on both sides of the question, and was always on his side whom he read last. And then he’d come home in a good or ill temper and call for his night-cap, and pipes and tobacco, and send for some neighbours to sit with him, and talk politics together. [Puts on a cap, and takes the pipes and sits down.]74

Stevens was equally as critical of printers who, in his opinion, had forsaken wit for politics to sell their newspapers. In a parable on the circumstances in which English wit had become homeless he observed that: “Poor Wit being turned out of doors, wandered about friendless, for it was never yet known that a man’s wit ever gained him a friend. He applied himself to the proprietors of the newspapers, but upon their inquiring whether he understood politics, and being totally ignorant of them, they would not employ him.”75 Thus, audiences were told in the theatre to be careful of what they read and were encouraged to laugh at the way the press had changed the average Briton. This critique of contemporary British society did not lose its entertaining sting in British North America. In 1785 Moore performed an adapted version76 of the “Lecture on Heads” in Halifax to a delighted audience employing the “Proper Scenery and Apparatus.”77 Upon settling in Quebec City, he performed the play on several occasions, having such a sway on the local population that letters to his Quebec Herald frequently requested repeat performances, or would excerpt passages from the play for comedic effect or to display their wit.78 The appeal of the Lecture on Heads, particularly with audiences in Quebec City, can also be seen in repeated allusions to it in correspondence to local newspapers. Theatre, and particularly satirical plays, offered colonists a forum in which the shortcomings of contemporary individuals, society, and indeed the press itself could be explored. Requisite to most productions was also a prologue, which set the tone for the evening’s performance. In English-language productions in both Halifax and Quebec City, these prologues ranged from the light-hearted to the overly melodramatic, attempting to emulate contemporary poetic styles with varying degrees of success. Prologues almost uniformly argued

74 Ibid., 62–3. 75 Ibid., 17. 76 Stevens changed his performance several times and it was popularly reinterpreted after his death in England by Charles Lee Lewes. Printer William Moore also created his own interpretation of the work. For the “heads” used in his colonial version see Quebec Herald, 31 January 1791, 85. 77 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 31 May 1785. 78 For example, on 7 March 1791 a writer under the name “A Citizen” submitted a parody of the Lecture on Heads as a response to a previously published article. The author prefaced his lecture in the style of Stevens. Quebec Herald, 7 March 1791, 124. Other examples include: “Bullum vs. Boatum” Quebec Herald, 3 December 1789, 14.

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the connection between colonial society and the culture and commerce of Britain. Composed and delivered by well-known local individuals, prologues illustrate – in the most direct sense – how this “rite of Britishness” played out to colonial audiences. It was a rite that also involved the newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City, projecting patriotic messages beyond the walls of the theatre to colonial readers and members of the print community. English-language prologues commonly portrayed British North America as being a savage wilderness that had been refined by British civilization, literature, and, of course, drama. As the prologue to the 1774 comedy Acadius, or Love in a Calm observed: In less than half man’s, Post Deluv’an age; In this Septentrion Clime, there was no stage … The muses, then, knew not, these frozen Climes; So sent no Cargo here, of Prose or Rhymes. But arts and trade, at length being wafted o’er, From British Isles to this Acad’an Shore; Disciples, then, of the Parnass’an Train; Adventur’d, over, the Atlantic Main.79

In a similarly dramatic and patriotic fashion, prologues such as one given at a performance in Quebec City in 1793 cited intellectual legacies including reason, justice, liberty, and the importance of public good as Britain’s greatest gift to her colonies: Oh! may Britannia’s Genius watchful spread The Shield of Wisdom o’er each patriot head; With generous ardor give her sons to feel Alone the interest of the Public Weal … Shall British bliss, and honors be consign’d, Her sons where’er by Fame or Commerce led Shall the sound maxims of her Police spread … May Reason strengthen the firm hand of Law … Till the adorning World shall own the Plan 79 A compilation of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theatre prologues is provided as an electronic resource by the University of New Brunswick library. The list was originally compiled by Patrick B. O’Neill, PhD, Speech and Drama Department, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia and later converted to an electronic Web format. See “Prologues and Epilogues as Performed on Canadian Stages in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Theatre/Texts/bin/get_prologues.cgi (accessed 1 May 2013). The prologue cited here was published in the Nova-Scotia Gazette and the Weekly Chronicle, 8 February 1774, 4.

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That as it proceeds best proves the Rights of Man. Nor is this prelude foreign to our cause, ’Tis mild spirit of British Laws; That gives us, midst the storms that rage around, Safely to meet on Pleasures flow’ry ground.80

Melodramatic and derivative, this kind of prologue nonetheless sheds a valuable light on the print community and the efforts of some participants to form a colonial elite in Halifax and Quebec City. While a play could delight, embarrass, or incur the wrath of the audience, a prologue was designed to be an agreeable piece. It was the role of the prologue, and its performer, to set a pleasant tone for the evening and generally delight the audience. Prologues tapped into a vein of sentiment that underscored their connection to the tastes and tradition of Britain, in spite of the colonial realities that they faced. These tastes included a spirit of societal improvement through the promotion of reason and the public good. The subsequent publishing of prologues both served to validate the theatre experience as well as propagate the patriotic messages that they conveyed. Prologues extolled a British victory over the colonial environment. These verses articulated a common belief that likened the colonies to a tabula rasa, ready to receive the stamp of empire and be improved by British genius – a multifaceted brilliance comprised of commerce, philosophy, literature, and of course, theatre. The interest exhibited in British theatre in Halifax and Quebec City does not appear to have extended to domestically written plays. This can be particularly seen in the years before the American Revolution and the arrival of the loyalists. Apart from prologues and epilogues, few other locally written dramatic works are known. Several explanations could be offered for this situation. Possibly, the small population of particularly pre-Revolutionary Halifax and Quebec City meant that there were proportionally fewer playwrights than could be found in other colonial American towns. Perhaps, as well, the taste for European and particularly British productions was such that any locally written works seemed lacklustre in comparison. A third possible reason may be that local plays had the potential to insult the sensibilities of both actors and the audience alike, people who all hailed from the same elite group of literate merchants, soldiers, and bureaucrats. One of the only known full-length domestic productions from this time period is Acadius, or Love in a Calm staged in 1774. No script is known to exist and it is only from newspaper reports that we have any 80 Quebec Magazine 2, no. 2 (1793): 98–9.

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record of this play, which satirized life in Nova Scotia with a cast of characters offering a host of local archetypes. For example, one of the main characters is Frankport, a local merchant, and the eponymous Acadius is a subaltern with the garrison. Frankport has a “negro servant” named Fortune and the servant’s wife is Phebe. One of the love interests is a local girl named Jenny Chowder and the play also has comedic duos such as the two visiting Londoners, Guttle and Guzzle, and Frankport’s two creditors, Scentwell and Saveall. Though intending the play to be light-hearted entertainment, its anonymous author nonetheless published a lengthy disclaimer before its production, distancing the characters from actual Haligonians. “The Author thinks proper to assure the Public;” a statement in the Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle read, “that the Fable of it is, an entire Fiction; and tho’ some part of the Place of Action may on a general Construction, rather be fixed in this Province, than any other part of the Continent of America, yet it cannot be absolutely so. – The Moral has a strict Moral tendency. The Episodes and Incidents (he presumes) are probable, natural and diverting. – And the Characters, he insists, are too outré to be personal on any Persons here or elsewhere, within the circle of the Author’s acquaintance.”81 It is impossible to know how the play was received, but it appears not to have gone over well. Unlike British plays – the staging of which are mentioned repeatedly in newspapers – there is no further mention in the Halifax papers of Acadius, or any indication that it was performed again. Considering that the Halifax press was normally generous in their reviews of plays, the satirical messages found in Acadius were perhaps considered a bit too close. Local theatre patrons, though all too ready to laugh at the foibles of archetypical British characters, were perhaps unwilling to find the joke in their own. Cultural and intellectual historians have observed that English theatre offered a forum for important societal critique in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The performance of theatre in the Atlantic, it has been argued, led to divisions rather than a unity of purpose. JeanChristophe Agnew, for example, eloquently writes that: Colonial theatre furnished an ill-placed mirror for its scattered and occasional audiences. What reflections its spectators found on their stage were of a world some three thousand miles away and, at times, a century removed from their own. Audiences listened in vain for local topics, local idiom, or local inflections from a theatre that lived on borrowed lines.82 81 Nova-Scotia Gazette and the Weekly Chronicle, 1 February 1774, 3. 82 Agnew, Worlds Apart, 150.

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However, the reception and purpose of theatre in Nova Scotia and Quebec was quite different than that in the much-studied American colonies to the south. The mirror was not ill-placed but rather placed exactly where the British American audiences of the northern colonies wanted. Instead of making audiences feel three thousand miles away from the English centre of the world, it instead reassured them. English theatre assuaged fears of irrelevancy and audiences gleefully chortled at the borrowed lines to prove that that they could still get the joke (as long as it was not at their own expense). To this point, there has been an emphasis on English-language theatre in Halifax and Quebec City. This preoccupation reflects the fact that, in the newspapers of both capitals, theatre was predominately advertised or commented upon in English. From the newspaper record, there is no evidence of a French-language theatre scene in mid-eighteenth century Halifax (which is not surprising considering the few people of French origin living in the region). On the other hand, in Quebec City a longstanding tradition of French-language theatre existed dating before the British regime and the introduction of the press. Throughout the seventeenth century theatre had been popular in Quebec, but a 1694 controversy over the staging of Molière’s irreverent Tartuffe ended with Bishop Saint-Vallier shutting down the production. This censure became tantamount to a ban on theatrical productions, casting a pall over the colony for almost six decades and ensuring that Quebec would witness only a few theatrical works during this time.83 After the British conquest of Quebec, French-language theatre re-emerged alongside the new taste for British productions.84 In October 1765, for example, the Quebec Gazette announced a “spectacle nouvel et divertissement public” that began with a one-act comedy entitled Les Fêtes Villageoises and continued with several smaller skits and musical numbers.85 The works of Molière reappeared in the capital, and the seminaries in particular became centres – albeit temporarily – of French language theatre.86 Although no professional

83 Benson and Conolly, English-Canadian Theatre, 3. Leonard Doucette believes that not all theatre in the colony was banned after Bishop Saint-Vallier’s mandement prohibiting the public performance of plays by colonists and Jesuits, citing the private pastorales and concerts of the Ursuline nuns. A blind eye was also turned to garrison theatre on the fringes of the Quebec. Doucette, Theatre in French Canada, 33–7. 84 For more details see Doucette, Theatre in French Canada, 38–48; Bains, English Canadian Theatre, 24–5. 85 Quebec Gazette, 24 October 1765, 3. 86 Much more is known of theatre in late eighteenth-century Montreal than in Quebec City. Nonetheless, a review of the nature of French language theatre in the capital, including the types of plays performed and the return to seminary productions, can be seen in Doucette, Theatre in French Canada, 37–48.

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French-language troupes performed between 1764 and 1805 in Quebec City, several groups of amateur players staged French-language plays.87 These included the officers of the garrison, students at French-language colleges (until 1780), and the amateur troop les Jeunes Messieurs Cana­ diens.88 However, throughout this period the Roman Catholic Church continued to oppose theatre on the grounds of its ostensible ability to communicate immoral behaviour and ideas. Grumblings amongst seminary leaders led to a ban of theatre in these institutions of higher learning in 1780, less than twenty years after the establishment of British administration and the lifting of the initial restrictions that the Roman Catholic Church had imposed on theatrical productions.89 By the 1790s, Roman Catholic displeasure with theatre troupes in Montreal had spread to the capital. The newspapers of Quebec City infrequently observed occurrences of French-language theatre. However, performances were not altogether ignored, particularly when their reporting could advance the political objectives of the English-language colonial print community. Such was the case when members of the colonial print community turned to the newspapers, in both languages, to show their displeasure with what they saw as Roman Catholic tradition encroaching on the liberating and modernizing aspects of British rule. Evidence of this can be seen in this translated version of a letter published in January 1791 in the Quebec Gazette that questions the growing strictures of the Church: No one has ever imagined that there would be objections against the decent, honest entertainment that a few young Canadian Gentlemen of this town have undertaken to offer the public by performing a few plays … An attempt is being made to persuade people that theatre is dangerous for the young folk who attend it, which seems hardly likely. On the contrary, even the briefest reflection should convince us that actors and spectators as well could in fact be using the time they now devote to these performances, in much less commendable amusements that would be a good deal more prejudicial to morality, to their own best interests and their health, as well as to the edification of their neighbours.90

As in the debates over theatre that had occurred in Halifax twenty years earlier, the author questioned assertions that theatre was immoral, seeing it as beneficial to both self and society. However, in a departure from

87 Lemire, La vie littéraire au Québec, 193. 88 Ibid., 182–4, 186, 188. 89 Ibid., 183. 90 Quebec Gazette, 20 January 1791, 2. Translated by L.E. Doucette and cited in Doucette, Theatre in French Canada, 68–9.

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those earlier debates, the author used the opportunity to tacitly question the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in British Quebec. Writing in English, Moore had no qualms about publicly admonishing Roman Catholic interference. “on Wednesday Evening,” he wrote in his Quebec Herald, “the Comedies which have been performed in french by some young gentlemen for the amusement of their friend [sic] during this winter, closed with a humourous comedy called the Spanish Barber, and attended by His Hon. Lieutenant Governor, and a numerous and respectable audience, without the interdiction of the Priest Craft.”91 In no uncertain terms, Moore used the opportunity of the performance to argue its legitimacy and progressive nature (as demonstrated through the attendance of the British lieutenant governor and other worthy citizens) and to denounce what he saw as the retrograde actions of the Roman Catholic Church. In late eighteenth-century Quebec City – where a longstanding and contested tradition of French language theatre existed – newspapers were employed in many ways by the colonial print community to promote British values. While particularly British-styled theatre was popular, the basic right to perform plays – regardless of the language – was also deemed important. The overtly patriotic messages that could be found in English-language plays and prologues were secondary to a perceived British liberality demonstrated in the staging of theatrical ­ performances. In the theatres of Halifax and Quebec City, patrons could connect directly to the popular entertainment of Britain in a visceral and communal way. Theatre was perceived by many as an elite form of sociability and such perceptions were upheld in the capitals by certain members of the colonial print community. Outside of the performances, theatre acted as a lightening rod for public debates over civic virtue. The print community debated the merits of plays in print and used the press to fashion theatre as an amusing and respectable form of entertainment. The messages elucidated in theatrical performances and then communicated through the press reinforced Great Britain’s political, intellectual, and cultural supremacy in the two capitals. Through the particular form of the prologue, performed on the stage and then echoed in the press, residents of Halifax and Quebec City were told that plays, and the Britishness they communicated, were an essential civilizing force in America. Initially divided over the virtues of theatre, members of the print community in Halifax and Quebec City would eventually come to embrace it. As the majority of performances received the approval of 91 Quebec Herald, 7 March 1791, 124.

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colonial officials, featured prominent gentlemen and military officers, and funded colonial charities, theatre was seen not only as entertainment, but also as an instructive, civilizing, and beneficial force of refined British tradition on the colonial periphery.

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7 The Coffeehouse Elite: Print and the Fashioning of “Genteel” British Tradition

As a purveyor of sundries, the peripatetic Henry Juncken would busily crisscross the narrow streets of late eighteenth-century Quebec City.1 Juncken spent much of his time at auctions in the Lower Town purch­ asing everyday items that he could sell to his various customers.2 Coffeehouses figured prominently in Juncken’s life. He would furnish provisions to the establishments and frequent them to meet with friends, or discuss business. Such was the case on the morning of Friday, 5 December 1788, when he met a group of other merchants and shared a glass of gin “in the London Custom” at Merchant’s Coffee House which included treating the proprietor to a complimentary glass, a tradition that he found “very odd.”3 After dinner, Henry Juncken would sometimes join his friends and business associates for conversation, games, and beverages again at Merchant’s, staying from six to eight or even ten o’clock, depending on the weather.4 It was also at Merchant’s Coffee House that Juncken, printer William Moore, schoolmaster and merchant John Jones, and a small group of merchants and tradesmen first conceived of and drew up the articles of incorporation for the Quebec 1 For a detailed biography of Juncken and summary of his daily activites see CinqMars, “Représentations et stratégies sociales d’un marchant étranger à Québec: Le journal de Johann Heinrich Juncken (Septembre 1788 – mai 1789),” 549–66. 2 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 1788–1789. Juncken’s journals detail his daily business dealings in and around the countryside of Quebec City. Before moving to Quebec, he lived in Philadelphia where he was accused of being a loyalist and compelled to publicly recant in the press (in both English and German). 3 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 5 December 1788, 93. 4 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 11 September 1788, 11; 16 January 1789, 149; 18 January 1789, 154; 21 February 1789, 161; 25 January 1789, 168; 11 March 1789, 246; 18 March 1789, 254.

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7.1  The merchant city below the hill. Late eighteenth-century Quebec City was a diverse and divided city, economically, culturally, linguistically, and geographically. The religious, military, and bureaucratic authorities lived in the Upper Town while many of the merchants lived and worked in the Lower Town. Print was one of connection and contestation amongst the colonial print community. “Lower Town, Quebec,” 1777, by James Hunter.

Benevolent Society, which would meet regularly. The society would be one of the colony’s first charitable societies, and Juncken was unanimously elected its first president.5 Coffeehouses were an important forum of sociability in eighteenthcentury British Halifax and Quebec City. Like newspapers and the theatre, coffeehouses were used as elite spaces of sociability for colonial administrators, military officers, senior merchants, printers, and aspiring men of commerce like Juncken. Coffeehouse proprietors and patrons 5 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 25 April 1789, 299. Juncken, though instrumental in the planning and operation of the Quebec Benevolent Society, did not attend its first meeting and was elected president in absentia. The formation and meetings of the friendly society are also chronicled publicly in Moore’s Quebec Herald.

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were invaluable members of the colonial print community. Print was vital to both the activities that took place within such establishments and to the promotion, advertising, and reporting of coffeehouse conduct. Members of the print community also used the press to fashion the coffeehouse as a form of sociability that stood apart from that of the average alehouse or public establishment. In newspaper advertisements, articles, and letters, coffeehouses were patterned as centres of colonial commerce. Coffeehouses in the two capitals were important fora for the diffusion and discussion of ideas, focal points of refined entertainment, and exemplars of genteel and familiar British tradition on the British American periphery. However, reconstructing the daily activities of coffeehouse patrons or finding evidence of the establishments’ influence upon the daily life of Halifax or Quebec City presents a challenging task. Archival sources that address coffeehouse life in the colonial capitals are rare and the few extant documents fail to give much detail about the nature of the establishments or their clientele. For example, in Quebec under the ancien régime there is little indication in legal records – other than proprietors occasionally described as “cafetier” – that a particular public house would also vend coffee. Nonetheless, Quebec City court records witness the existence of several establishments that served coffee dating to at least 1675.6 One particularly colourful proprietor, Pierre Hévé (Evé), noted as a cafetier, buvetier, and cabaretier, appears in court records no less than two dozen times in the first decades of the eighteenth century.7 While these establishments served coffee, it is doubtful that they bore much more resemblance to the coffeehouses that would emerge under British governance. The origins of the earliest coffeehouses in Halifax are similarly clouded. The first licenses for public houses were issued just days after the first transports of 6 In addition to licenses, court records also detail those involved in the provision of beverages and lodgings. For example, on 26 August 1675 caberetier Charles Marquis and his wife Marguerite Cousin were fined for attacking shoemaker Adrien Michelon (see banqq, fonds Nouvelle-France. Conseil Souverain, TP1, S28, P1168, f. 243–243v., microfilm M9 / 1). Not only did coffeehouse proprietors incur criminal charges, so too, of course, did coffeehouse patrons, as was the case of one Catignon (Gatinon – Gatignon dit Duchesne) who had court proceedings started against him on 9 October 1679 for swearing and uttering blasphemy in the coffeehouse of Pierre Nolan. See banqq, fonds Nouvelle-France, Cour de la Prevoté de Québec, TL1, S11, SS1, D11, P14, f. 9v–10, microfilm M48 / 3. 7 He is also listed in court records as being a navigateur later in his life (banqq, fonds Nouvelle-France. Conseil Soverain and fonds Nouvelle–France. Cour de la Prevoté de Québec). Perhaps reflecting the popularity of Hévé’s coffeehouse, on 9 October 1730 he was fined fourteen livres for opening his establishment on holidays and Sundays at the same time as divine service and was temporarily forbidden to “tenir café ni cabaret.” banqq, fonds Nouvelle-France, Intendant, E1, S1, P2236, f. 15–15v, microfilm M5 / 5.

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settlers arrived in the new colony during the summer of 1749.8 There is little evidence, however, of the services these public houses offered. Indeed, various reports cite 1751 as the year the first coffeehouse opened, though little is known about that establishment or its services.9 For certain colonists, coffeehouses were undoubtedly an essential part of the daily routine; however, it was a routine that was deemed not to require elaboration. Considering this, eighteenth-century print – and in particular the domestic press – offers an invaluable means to flesh out the manuscript sources concerning the coffeehouse. In particular, the newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City provide a more complete picture of the establishments, of their role in colonial society, and of how print was employed to fashion the coffeehouse as an elite form of sociability. In eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City, several different types of public houses existed, the most controversial of which provided alcohol to the lower classes of colonial society. Long before the temperance movements of Victorian Canada,10 late eighteenth-century writers are known to have lamented the unfavourable aspects of alehouses and taverns, decrying the deleterious effects of alcohol. As early as 1760 Alexander Grant, writing to the Reverend Styles of Boston, observed of Halifax, with its 3,000 inhabitants, that “we have upwards of one hundred licensed houses and perhaps as many more that retail spirituous liquors without license; so the business of one half the town is to sell rum and the other half is to drink it.”11 In Quebec, the situation was not perceived as being much better. A correspondent to the Quebec Gazette in 1765 felt compelled to write a complaint “against both the Nations that compose this Province” concerning ill behaviour from people whose actions should reflect what he saw as “two of the most polished Nations of Europe.”12

8 nsarm, Government at Halifax 1748–1906, Commission and Order Books, 1749– 1871, RG 1, volumes 163–4. 9 For example, it is known that Captain William Piggot received license for his Halifax coffeehouse in 1751. This, however, was granted not for the sale of coffee, but for the operation of a billiard table. See Akins, “History of Halifax City,” 30; Mullane, “Old Inns and Coffee Houses of Halifax,” 1; Bates, Annotated and Illustrated Map, “Old Halifax 1749– 1830,” c. 1950, private collection of Michael Eamon with thanks to Ken Hiltz of Halifax for finding this document and for granting access to other productions of the late George Bates. 10 By the mid-nineteenth-century public houses were seen almost universally as dens of iniquity and working-class culture and became one of the targets of the temperance movements. See DeLottinville, “Joe Beef of Montreal”; Warsh, ed., Drink in Canada; and Heron, Booze. 11 “An Account of Halifax. In a Letter From Mr. Alexander Grant to Rev. Mr. Stiles, Dated at Halifax, May 1760,” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 10 (1809): 79–80. 12 Quebec Gazette, 18 April 1765, 1.

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While emphasizing the importance of social gatherings the writer lamented the deleterious effects of alcohol, which led men to engage in acts that “are not allowable when sober, [such that] Men do not hesitate, especially at certain Taverns, to create a needless Expense to themselves, by breaking and destroying furniture often valuable; and what is extraordinary, this is done thro’ Gaiety … Pray Gentlemen there is not Wit where Reason is wanting.”13 In the eighteenth century in both Quebec and Nova Scotia the abuse of alcohol was perceived as a blight upon society, a malady fostered in the various licensed and unlicensed public houses that eventually resulted in irrational behaviour, violence, and debauchery. Contemporary government records of the period – including legislative records, tavern licenses, and court documents – provide an equally colourful account of public house activity, as found in written and print accounts. The colonial administrations of Nova Scotia and Quebec went to great lengths to combat public drunkenness and the growth of what was ­perceived as a “great many” unlicensed establishments.14 By law all ­eighteenth-century public houses in Nova Scotia and Quebec that served alcohol, or had gaming tables, required licenses including the colonies’ coffeehouses. As in Britain,15 public house proprietors in mid-to-late ­eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec required private assurances of good conduct as well as a formal recognizance issued by a Justice of the Peace at a colonial court of Quarter Sessions.16 Acquiring licenses to vend alcohol could be bureaucratic and costly affair. In Quebec, prospective licensees had to pay the Clerk of the Privy Council of Quebec one shilling and six pence for a one-year permit17 and then forfeit twenty pounds for 13 Ibid. 14 “An Ordinance for retailing Rum and Spirituous Liquors and for suppressing unlicensed Houses,” 6 George III (7 July 1766) in Ordinances Made for the Province of Quebec by the Governor and Council (Quebec: Brown and Gilmore, 1767), 75. For licenses dealing with Quebec and particularly Quebec City see lac, RG4–B28, Civil Secretary and Provincial Secretary, applications for licences, bonds and certificates. Quebec, Lower Canada, and Canada East, volumes 59–101 and 120–8. For Nova Scotia, and particularly Halifax, see nsarm, RG 1, Commissioner of Public Records, Government at Halifax, Commission and Order Books, volume 163. 15 See the Britain Alehouses Act, or Licensing Act of 1753, 26 George II, c. 31. 16 For an example see lac, MG55 / 23–No115, “Trois recommandations pour Joseph Foucher afin d’obtenir une license de cabaretier,” 12 July 1799. This file provides an example of the scrutiny required to acquire a tavern license in Quebec including three character recommendations of Joseph Foucher by J.C. Just, William Grant, and James Ward. 17 Supplement to the Quebec Gazette, 4 July 1765, 2; and “An Ordinance for retailing Rum and Spirituous Liquors and for suppressing unlicensed Houses,” 6 George III (7 July 1766) in Ordinances Made for the Province of Quebec by the Governor and Council (Quebec: Brown and Gilmore, 1767), 75–7.

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a recognizance and sureties at the Court of Quarter Sessions.18 In Nova Scotia, similar fees were instituted, though unlike in Quebec the license was valid for a period of two years.19 Offenders caught selling alcohol in Halifax without a license were initially fined five dollars per offence. As this punishment provided little deterrent, the fine was later raised to ten dollars per offence in 1775.20 In spite – or perhaps because – of such measures, the Nova Scotia legislature and the Legislative Council of Quebec continued to introduce revised or new ordinances throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century to address what was believed to be a growing problem of unlicensed vending of alcohol and public drunkenness. Some of the silences in the historical record concerning early coffeehouses can be attributed to the fact that no specific license was required to sell coffee. Coffeehouses show up in the legal record when they – like any other colonial public house – were licensed to sell liquor or provided gaming tables. Indeed, alcohol consumption was a common aspect of coffeehouse life. As we have seen, Henry Juncken’s journal tells of the drinking of gin in Merchant’s Coffee House in Quebec City. While in Halifax between 1787 and 1792, the military diarist William Dyott tells of his frequenting several of the town’s coffeehouses. In 1792, describing one particularly indulgent 17 March, Dyott writes: “We kept the day in honour of St. Patrick by dining together at the coffeehouse, and a pretty scene of drunkenness it was.”21 In both Halifax and Quebec City, coffeehouses hosted special dinners to mark national saints’ days, ritual freemasons’ festivals,22 and exclusive colonial societies such as the Veterans of 1775– 76.23 On the surface, all public houses in eighteenth-century British North America appeared to have much in common. Most offered a wide 18 “Inn-keepers,” “publicans,” and “all Persons whatsoever” who wanted to sell alcohol publicly were bound by the ordinance and had to further promise, “that they will not use, or suffer any unlawful Games, and that they will keep good Order and Rule within their respective Houses and other Places.” Quebec Gazette, 18 October 1764, 3. 19 See “An act for the suppressing of Unlicensed Houses, and granting to His Majesty a Duty on persons hereafter to be Licensed,” 33 George II, c. 13 (1760) and “An Extract from the Act for suppressing unlicensed Houses,” Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 31 January 1775, 3. 20 Ibid. 21 Jeffery, ed., Dyott’s Diary, 69. 22 Merchant’s Coffee House enjoyed a broad spectrum of patronage, including hosting St Andrew’s Day celebrations (see Quebec Herald, 8 December 1788). 23 The Veterans of 1775–76 was a convivial group that annually celebrated the victory of combined British and Canadian forces over the nascent Continental Army. The ill-fated attack led to the death of the American general Richard Montgomery in Quebec’s Lower Town and an ineffectual siege of the city that lasted until the spring of 1776. Quebec Herald, 5 January 1789, 7; Quebec Herald, 27 December 1790, 1.

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range of services from the provision of meals and lodgings to the sale of refreshments and alcohol. Furthermore, legislation in both colonies ensured that all public houses that sold alcohol or offered gambling tables were licensed.24 Yet, in spite of these seemingly basic similarities, not all public houses were perceived as being equal. On the contrary, eighteenthcentury coffeehouse proprietors went to great efforts to promote their establishments as centres of business and genteel entertainment, grander in appearance and more refined in services than that of the typical colonial public house. Patrons, in turn, sought out coffeehouses as suitable spaces to transact business, hold formal meetings, or meet informally with acquaintances. In this sense, these proprietors in Halifax and Quebec City were quite similar to their counterparts throughout colonial America. As cultural historian Richard L. Bushman observed, by the mid-eighteenth century, polite society in America required larger spaces than traditional, private dwellings could offer, thus “groups of gentlemen and entrepreneurs soon created such spaces as public extensions of the private genteel world.”25 Later taverns, traditionally associated with vice and bawdy entertainment, transformed offering more refined refreshments and services.26 In these spaces, men could conduct business, refresh themselves after their work, read, or discuss the latest news. Print was important both to the activities of the coffeehouse and the establishment’s promotion throughout the British Atlantic.27 In England, 24 In Charlottetown, the capital of the colony of Saint John, one local coffeehouse was deemed elevated enough to be the site of the weekly Sunday service. However, this practice was put abruptly to an end during the 1789 visit of the Rt. Rev. Charles Inglis, the newly appointed Bishop of Quebec, who opted to instead celebrate the Church of England service on his ship the hms Dido. lac, mg23-c6, Journal of Charles Inglis, “Minutes of My Voyage to Quebec & Proceedings During that June 1789,” Volume c6, 23 May 1789, Reel a-709. 25 Bushman, The Refinement of America, 160. 26 Ibid., 161–2. 27 The British coffeehouse has been the subject of a staggering amount of scholarship. Works on the role of the coffeehouse in the intellectual and social life of Great Britain include Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, 300; Allen, The Clubs of Augustan London, 33–4; Coser, Men of Ideas, 19–25; Ellis, The Penny Universities; Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere; and Porter, The Creation of the Modern World, 203. Early interpretations concerning a universal nature of the coffeehouse to promote equality, education, and particularly a Habermasian public sphere have recently been questioned. Some of this counterpoint can be seen in writings such as Pincus, “‘Coffee Politicians Does Create,’” 833–4; Laurier and Philo, “‘A Parcel of Muddling Muckworms,’” 275; Cowan, The Social Life of Coffee, 1–2; Cowan, “Publicity and Privacy in the History of the British Coffeehouse.” The coffeehouse of British America has not received as much attention. A selection of extant works included Bushman, The Refinement of America, 160–2; Conroy, In Public Houses; and Shields, Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America, 55–98.

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print was used to shape the public perception of the early coffeehouse. From their introduction in the mid-seventeenth century,28 coffeehouses quickly became a popular fixture of English, and later British, life capturing both the imagination and the ire of contemporary writers. Within three decades of the emergence of the first coffeehouses in England, advocates were already singing the praises – in print – of these new social institutions, lauding them as a mark of an unprecedented age of commerce, productivity, and intellectualism. Coffee, in particular, was believed to stimulate the senses and conversation, promoting what was perceived by many as a more refined style of sociability than had been previously known. Accounts dating back to the late seventeenth century paint a polarized picture of the establishment, both capturing the imagination and raising the ire of the public. Inside the establishments, it was observed that a diverse group of patrons discussed business, read the “freshest” newspapers, overheard the latest gossip, or voiced their opinions on current events. Coffeehouses were praised in some corners as places where “all ranks” could assemble and partake in conversations as stimulating as the eponymous beverage that was served.29 On the other hand, critics argued that the “levelling” aspects of the establishment allowed “rooks,” “mountebanks,” and other pretenders to take on airs beyond their station, and in their discussions dupe the unaware with their pretences.30 Throughout the eighteenth century, British satirists would continue to poke fun at coffeehouses and the various “characters” who were perceived to frequent them, further revealing the tensions between what was seen as the emerging coffeehouse class and traditional polite society. These characters included self-important businessmen busily darting from coffeehouse to coffeehouse while achieving little,31 vociferous debaters possessing strong political opinions with no actual experience in politics,32 or common labourers and tradesmen who took on airs beyond their true 28 Most accounts argue that the coffeehouses first emerged in England in the mid1750s. Ellis, The Coffee House, 29–30. 29 Anonymous, Coffee-Houses Vindicated in Answer to the Late Published Character of a Coffee-House Asserting from Reason, Experience and Good Authours, the Excellent Use, and Physical Vertues of that Liquor With the Grand Conveniency of such civil places of Resort and Ingenious Conversation (London: F. Lock and F. Clarke, 1673), 5. 30 See, for example, Anonymous, The Character of a Coffee-House, with Symptoms of a Town-Wit, With Allowance, April 11th, 1673 (London: Jonathan Edwin, 1673), 3, 6. 31 For example see “Character of a Coffee-house Lounger,” Weekly Miscellany; or, Instructive Entertainer 5, no. 108 (October 1775): 110–11. 32 One particularly satirical poem was entitled: “To a Coffee-house Politician.” Sentimental Magazine (October 1776): 447.

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education and station in life.33 By the eighteenth century, print accounts portrayed the coffeehouse as a central social institution, a cultural touchstone that both acted as a catalyst for intercourse and was itself a lightening rod of debate. Colonists in both Halifax and Quebec City – many of whom had been patrons of Britain’s coffeehouses – were also aware of the characteristics and literary impressions of the institution. Newspapers in the capitals made a regular habit of keeping their readers informed of any speeches, altercations, or other events that had taken place in coffeehouses.34 Some of these articles painted the British coffeehouse in an unfavourable light. Coffeehouses were known to harbour unsavoury characters, and represented a place where a fraud could be perpetrated or the occasional fit of politically inspired violence could be witnessed. Colonial readers were also exposed to articles that framed the coffeehouse in a more positive and progressive fashion, particularly in regard to the establishment’s role in British commerce and communications. From newspaper reports, colonial readers were informed that coffeehouses were frequented by noted British politicians and savants, brokered financial transactions, and were the establishment of choice for doctors, lawyers, merchants, and the emerging government bureaucracy. Loved or loathed, the coffeehouse was nonetheless seen as an essential part of daily life, not to be missed even in the direst circumstances. In the article “A New Etiquette for Mourners,” excerpted in the Quebec Herald in 1789, it was observed under the heading “A Husband Losing His Wife” that a man “must weep or seem to weep at the funeral – Should not appear at the coffee-room the first week – should vent a proper sigh whenever and wherever good wives or matrimony are mentioned.”35 The kernel of truth in this “advice,” as with all good satire, was in the popular perception that the coffeehouse was an essential part of daily life and that, in some circles, even the death of a spouse should not delay one’s

33 Richard Steele, under the guise of Isaac Bickerstaff, wrote that the intended purpose of The Tatler was to deal with this very problem throughout society, “to expose the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of cunning, vanity and affection.” The coffeehouse remained a perceived hub of superficiality well into the mid-eighteenth century. For example see the observations of Tobias Smollett’s character Mathew Bramble in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1771. 34 For some examples see Halifax Gazette, 20 July 1754, 2; Supplement to the Halifax Gazette, 14 May 1761; Nova-Scotia Chronicle, 20 February 1770, 59, 3 April 1770, 109, and 29 May 1770, 173; Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 11 January 1774, 4 and 3 May 1774, 3; Quebec Herald, 9 March 1789, 146, 16 March 1789, 149, 9 November 1789, 435, and 24 December 1789, 37. 35 Quebec Herald, 16 February 1789, 6.

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attendance unnecessarily. It is arguably a perception known by colonists; Moore, ever mindful of his readers’ tastes, would not have excerpted such a piece if he believed that they would not understand the joke. London coffeehouse proprietors – assuming a pre-existing knowledge and familiarity with their establishments – used colonial newspapers to appeal directly to a perceived colonial clientele. In 1754, Edward Clarke, the proprietor of the New England Coffee House in London, announced in the nascent Halifax Gazette that he had just opened an expanded establishment called the “New-York, New-England, Rhode Island and Nova Scotia Coffee-House” in London’s Royal Exchange district.36 Thomas Lever, the new proprietor of the “New-York, New-England, Nova Scotia, Quebec, &c. &c. Coffee-House” in 1761 took out an advertisement in the Halifax Gazette to state that his establishment was still open, but had moved to another location, “till the Party Walls of the House are rebuilt.” As Edward Clark had done before him, Lever invited colonial men of business to frequent his establishment, boasting “the freshest American, Foreign and Liverpool News Papers.”37 London coffeehouse proprietors not only went to the time and expense to advertise in colonial newspapers, they also used inclusive names for their establishments – all in an apparent attempt to promote a more familiar environment for prospective patrons. That London proprietors made these efforts at all attests to the fact that colonists were not only seen as valuable clientele, but also as well travelled and familiar with the importance of the eighteenth-century coffeehouse as a forum for business, entertainment, print, and oral information. Print not only informed colonists of the culture of coffeehouses and its activities, it was also requisite in the functioning of the establishment. Historian Richard Brown argues that the coffeehouse was a hub of public information in the thirteen colonies.38 Similarly, from the coffeehouses of Halifax and Quebec City news could be sent or received, connecting patrons with greater transatlantic networks of information and opinion. For example, sea captains would leave bags out for the parcels and would, in turn, deliver mail directly to the coffeehouse. Henry Juncken, hoping to send a letter to London, writes: “went to Furgusons [Merchant’s Coffee House] to see which of the Captns had a Bag there to receive Letters for London. The Manuelle Capt. Edwards had one there and he is to sail toDay.”39 On another occasion, Juncken writes that mail had

36 Halifax Gazette, 22 June 1754, 2. 37 Halifax Gazette, 14 May 1761, 2. 38 Brown, Knowledge Is Power, 114–15. 39 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 5 November 1788, 51.

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a­ rrived for him: “Thomas Furguson [sic] of the Coffee House told me in the Market, there was a Letter for me at his house, I went home with him had the letter, and returned.”40 Reflecting the coffeehouse’s role as a central distribution point for mail, if the particular address of an individual was unknown, it would not be uncommon to have the package sent automatically to the local coffeehouse in the hope that it would eventually find the intended recipient.41 The same currents of communication that brought letters and oral reports into the coffeehouse also carried newspapers, magazines, and other print items. In the early years of the nineteenth century at the Exchange Coffee House in St John, New Brunswick patrons were offered “Lloyds list, a London Paper Publish’d three times a Week, a New York and Boston daily paper and a Halifax and St. John weekly paper, [and] to provide Fuwell and Candle Light for the same and a Blank Book for the Insertion of News and pen, ink and paper.”42 Readers of newspapers in Halifax and Quebec City were informed that coffeehouses throughout the northern British Atlantic contained prints with the “freshest” news – and while no lists of print materials for the coffeehouses in Halifax and Quebec City are known to exist, the establishments would likely have offered a similarly wide selection of items to read. James Rivington – sometime bookseller in Halifax43 and rumoured double agent in the American Revolution44 – understanding the connection between social interaction and print, established a successful printing business, a newspaper, and a coffeehouse in New York.45 It is, then, perhaps no coincidence that Juncken tells of Moore’s frequent patronage of Merchant’s Coffee House in Quebec City. At Merchant’s, Moore could talk with captains from the packet ships, pick up newspapers, and receive other intelligence for his Quebec Herald. In this sense, the coffeehouse had the potential to take on the dual role of being the terminus for transatlantic print and the source for colonial publications. Through print we can also observe that colonial coffeehouses were perceived as places for the distribution of print in such various formats as

40 Ibid., 3 December 1788, 91. 41 This was the case when Ward Chipman Sr sent Samuel Jones a letter via a New York coffeehouse. lac, MG23–D1 Ward Chipman (Senior and Junior) fonds, Samuel Jones to Ward Chipman, New York, 1 July 1784, Reel C–1179.  42 New Brunswick Museum, Archives and Research Library, Saint John (nbm), Oversize Collections, OS F4, 1, Saint John Exchange Coffee House, subscription list, 1803–1804. 43 Halifax Gazette, 14 May 1761, 2. 44 Crary, “The Tory and the Spy.” 45 Scott, ed., Rivington’s New York Newspaper.

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correspondence, handbills, pamphlets, and essays. In 1754, an article republished in the Halifax Gazette was prefaced by the fact that “the following Pieces have been handed about at some of the Coffee-Houses” in London.46 Merchant’s Coffee House, in Quebec City boasted a dedicated “Board of Intelligence” where information of public interest could be posted, and later published – as Moore did in May 1790 – reporting delays in the mail service due to a problem with the packet ships.47 Later, a writer under the name A Citizen, in prefacing a series of satirical verses submitted to the Quebec Herald, claimed that: “I found the inclosed Lecture on Heads last evening in St. Peter’s Street, near the CoffeeHouse. The original Manuscript, from lying in the snow being a little effaced, curiosity prompted me to dry it, and make a fair copy.”48 It is clear from the tone of the verses – based upon Moore’s own comical interpretation of the Lecture on Heads – that the preface is a ruse, perhaps to distance or absolve the anonymous contributor from scrutiny of the satirical piece. Regardless of the intentions of the writer, he nonetheless believed that the public would accept the idea that such a piece could have been delivered, and subsequently discarded, near the coffeehouse. Coffeehouses in Halifax and Quebec City also offered a space for people to congregate and engage in what were seen as refined or elite entertainments. Coffeehouse owners made their establishments attractive and touted them as “respectable” by providing large, multi-roomed spaces that were generally more impressive than the typical alehouse, or licensed residence. Proprietors frequently sought out imposing structures of two to three storeys, offering enough space for separate dining and coffee rooms as well as guest accommodations. Most boasted premises with at least one large assembly room that was used for meetings, concerts, theatre, and even divine worship. While few detailed accounts remain, it is known that the Pontac in Halifax was a large, three-storey complex with dining and coffee rooms on the first floor, a large assembly room on the second, and accommodations for guests on the third floor.49 In Quebec City, it appears that this format of establishment was equally popular. Coffeehouse proprietors were quite discriminating in their choice of establishment, tending to do business in buildings that had been previously used for the same purpose. (See appendix III.) As in Halifax, these buildings were at least two storeys in height with dining

46 Halifax Gazette, 13 December 1754, 3–4. 47 Quebec Herald, 6 May 1790, 189. 48 Quebec Herald, 7 March 1791, 124. 49 Mullane, “Old Inns and Coffee Houses of Halifax,” 1; Raddall, Halifax, Warden of the North, 52; and Major, “The Great Pontac Inn.”

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and coffee facilities on the first floor, and an assembly hall or guest rooms in the upper storeys. One of the most detailed descriptions of a typical colonial coffeehouse is found in a 1789 advertisement for the sale of the Exchange Coffee House in neighbouring St John. Boasting a total area of fifty by eighty feet, an advertisement announcing its sale further touted the establishment as having: On the first floor is one room 25 feet square, completely fitted up for a Coffee room – one parlour 24 by 15 feet, – to which joins a compleat bar room – one ditto 26 by 15 feet, which has been ever since the settlement of the city, employed as a store, and is allowed to be equal to the best stand in the province.   On the second floor is an elegant Assembly Room 50 by 25 feet – one large parlour and a bed room – On the third floor is eight well finishedbedrooms. – Under the first floor, is a well frequented Store … a largeconvenient kitchen – also a very fine cellar, 36 by 24 feet, built of stone.50

Such buildings, replete with what were described as “elegant” assembly rooms and salons purposely stood apart from the average alehouse. Unlike the unlicensed and shadowy grog shops often hidden away from plain view, the colonial coffeehouse was clearly visible and was intended as a focal point in the community, or on the street. Advertisements in colonial newspapers told of the instruction of dance and languages at coffeehouses as well as the hosting of balls, dancing assemblies, theatrical events, and concert performances. Such events, much like newspapers and other print material, were provided by coffeehouse proprietors to offer catalysts for conversation, opinion, and the general entertainment of patrons. In Britain, some establishments advertised cabinets of curiosities and other entertainments that would have been unconventional in the original seventeenth-century businesses. Don Saltero’s coffeehouse, in particular, became a popular destination. In 1775, loyalist diarist Samuel Curren could not resist the allure of Saltero’s and, after visiting the nearby New England Coffee House, paid a visit “where we drank Tea and were entertained with a sight of the curiosities there, consisting of many kinds both of Nature and art, remarkable antique dresses, exotic plants, minerals, fish, reptiles, insects, &c. &c.”51 The breadth of the collections held at Saltero’s is witnessed by the

50 Royal Saint John Gazette, 20 March 1789, 3. 51 Saturday, 12 August 1775, in Oliver, ed., The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist, volume 1, 46.

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over four dozen editions of the artefact catalogue published as both souvenir and advertisement for visitors of the Chelsea establishment.52 While neither Halifax nor Quebec City boasted an establishment as famous as Will’s coffeehouse in London – or offered cabinets of curiosities like those found at Don Saltero’s – local coffeehouse proprietors nonetheless advertised what they believed to be credible colonial equivalents. In addition to dances, concerts, and theatre performances, coffeehouse proprietors advertised scientific, or pseudo-scientific, displays, ventriloquism,53 and the mounting of historical and popular personages in wax.54 Coffeehouses became a physical space where the much vaunted “useful knowledge” that the colonial print community read about could be put into practice. In September 1769 the proprietor of Quebec City’s British Coffee House advertised a series of lectures on pneumatics “containing a variety of the principal and most important Experiments on the Air-Pump and Condensing-Engine, those curious machines by which the several wonderful Properties and Effects of the Air, or Atmosphere, are demonstrated, and in a very entertaining Manner made sensible to us.” Pneumatics, the advertisement argued, was one of the most important new sciences of the era, as “there is scarce any Subject in Natural Philosophy that has given Rise to a greater Variety of Experiments, or that affords a more satisfactory Entertainment.” The lectures were aimed at an educated though non-specialist audience and potential patrons were reassured that: as it is presumed that many who attend these Lectures, may perhaps not have made Philosophy a previous Study, Care has been taken in compiling them, to make every Experiment as plain and explicit as the Nature of the Subject will admit of; and to render them in every Respect a polite and rational Amusement to those who are happy enough to have any Taste for Knowledge.55 52 The English Short Titles Index lists thirteen different versions of the catalogue that is believed to have been published yearly between 1731 and at least 1795. In 1731, the coffeehouse boasted a collection of 271 items ranging from a “Model of our Blessed Saviour’s Sepulchre at Jerusalem” to a “Skeleton of a Child.” By the last known catalogue in 1795, it appears that the number had grown to 711 items in seventeen display cases, mounted on the walls of the coffeehouse. The range of items included religious relics, animal specimens, human and other remains, clothing, weapons, coins, and the like. See Catalogue of the Rarities To Be Seen at Don Saltero’s Coffee House in Chelsea To which is added, a Complete List of Donors thereof (London: 1731). Catalogue Descriptive of the Various Curiosities to be seen at Don Saltero’s Coffee–House and Tavern in Chelsea, which is prefixed a Complete List of Donors thereof, The Forty Eighth Edition [1795?]. 53 Royal Gazette, 15 November 1808, 3; Weekly Chronicle, 23 December 1808, 3. 54 For examples see Royal Gazette, 6 January 1795, 3; Royal Gazette, 11 July 1809, 3. 55 Quebec Gazette, 14 September 1769, 3.

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In crafting the advertisement, the proprietor of the British Coffee House utilized several key terms and concepts that would have resonated amongst members of the colonial print community. The sociability that the British Coffee House offered was not intended for everyone. It specifically targeted the literate members of colonial society who valued a “polite” and “rational Amusement,” those particular individuals who possessed a “Taste for Knowledge.” Members of the colonial print community who had used print as a vehicle for polite debate, rational expression, and the diffusion of useful knowledge were the primary audience for these advertisements that played to their sensibilities of proper behaviour, refined entertainment, and elite association. This idea of the coffeehouse as an elite space runs against the widely held interpretation of the diverse, levelling, and “community centre” nature of public houses in early nineteenth-century Canada.56 Nonetheless, the coffeehouse of eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City stood apart from these later incarnations. Indeed, part of this process of fashioning coffeehouses in the two capitals as elite spaces was to frame the establishments in what was perceived as an appropriately English or British style. Print, crucial to fostering the cultural imagination surrounding the coffeehouse, was complemented by tangible actions on the part of coffeehouse proprietors. At the most superficial level, coffeehouse proprietors in the capitals tended to name their establishments after famous London coffeehouses, playing upon both public perceptions formed through firsthand experience and the numerous print accounts of coffeehouse life in Great Britain. Some names, such as the British Coffee House57 – used in both Halifax and Quebec City – were explicit in portraying to patrons the nature of the establishment. Others served as more subtle transatlantic namesakes, such as Halifax’s Pontac,58

56 For examples see Guillet, Pioneer Inns and Taverns, volume i, 14; McBurney and Byers, Tavern in the Town; Roberts, Taverns and Tavern-goers in Upper Canada, the 1790s to the 1850s; and Roberts, “‘A Mixed Assemblage of Persons’”; Heron, Booze, 27–8. 57 The British Coffee House was in Cockspur-street and famous for its Scottish patronage and agreeable landladies, one of which (a Mrs Anderson) is described as “a woman of uncommon talents, and the most agreeable conversation.” Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, 315. 58 The Pontac, also known as the Great Pontac, or Old Pontac, was built in Halifax in 1754. Named after a similar establishment in London, it soon became one of city’s principal hotel-taverns. In December 1758, the lease on the property, including all furniture, was advertised to have expired. Any interested parties were advised to contact the landlord George Suckling. Willis took over the establishment in 1769. See Mullane, “Old Inns and Coffee Houses of Halifax,” 2.

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Mermaid,59 Exchange,60 and Jerusalem61 coffeehouses, or Quebec City’s Union,62 London,63 and Merchant’s coffeehouses.64 Names such as the Exchange or Merchant’s clearly indicated the purported focus on business, while titles such as the Pontac or Mermaid connoted spaces of refined sociability and merriment. In Quebec City, the use of familiar British-inspired names was not as prevalent as it was in Halifax. Instead, the name of their proprietor was favoured, such as Franks’ Tavern and Coffee House, or Alex Cairn’s Quebec Coffee House in Quebec City. Despite these exceptions, it is clear that a concerted effort was made by several proprietors to emulate names (such as the British Coffee House or General Wolfe’s) that carried with them an air of familiarity, connotations of sociability and commerce, and reflected the nationality of their preferred clientele in a divided town. Proprietors of such unmistakably British-sounding establishments went to great lengths to publicize in print equally grand, refined, and transatlantic-inspired services to colonial readers. An advertisement in the nascent Halifax Gazette in 1752 proclaimed the opening of a new coffeehouse in the town “with the Approbation of His Excellency the Governor,” where patrons could drink refreshments or be taught dancing, or French.65 In 1768, Halifax’s William Fury boasted “a Commodious Coffee-Room” in which “he will always take particular Care to be furnished with every Thing of the best in its Kind.”66 Adjacent to the coffeehouse, Fury also advertised, “a neat Garden to walk in, stock’d with a Variety of the best English fruit Trees and now in bearing.”67 Halifax’s 59 Several Mermaid Taverns existed in London, the most famous hosted the Mermaid Club, and boasted such patrons as Walter Raleigh, William Shakespeare, and John Donne. Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, 7–9. 60 The Exchange was a common name for coffeehouses throughout the Atlantic. In addition to the Exchange Coffee House situated in London, there were also Exchange Coffee Houses in Boston, Massachusetts, and Saint John. 61 The Jerusalem Coffee House was situated in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange and was still active during the time of Timbs. Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, 293–4. 62 The Union and New Union Coffee Houses were found in Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange in London. Ellis, The Penny Universities, 126. 63 The London Coffee House opened around 1731 and was situated by St Martin’s Church, near Ludgate, London. Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, 345–7. 64 Merchant’s was a commonly used coffee house name. There was one in Shelburne, Nova Scotia during the 1780s, another in Philadelphia, and one in New York from 1737 to 1804. Port Roseway Gazetteer and Shelburne Advertiser (Shelburne), 19 May 1785, 3; “Tablet for Famous Old Coffee House,” New York Times, 24 May 1914, 14. 65 Halifax Gazette, 25 April 1752, 2. 66 Nova-Scotia Gazette, 5 May 1768, 3. 67 Ibid.

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“Great” Pontac, best known under the ownership of John Willis, epitomized what could be considered the typical full-service coffeehouse and tavern of the period. Willis advertised that the raison d’être of his establishment was to “improve Public Entertainment” by providing a space where “Gentlemen, of every Profession, both of Town and Country, may rely on Being genteely entertained at the most reasonable Rates.”68 In these spaces, men could conduct business, refresh themselves after their work, read, or discuss the latest news. Indeed, the promotion of coffee houses as places of “genteel entertainment” was a hallmark of many advertisements placed in local newspapers by establishment proprietors. Coffeehouse proprietors such as Elizabeth Brehm,69 Mrs. Sutherland70 – whose establishment was a favourite with the North British and Irish Societies – and Elizabeth Taylor all promoted the respectability of their establishments in the press. In particular, Taylor advertised that her Bristol, or British, Coffee House offered “genteel Entertainment … for accommodating Gentlemen and Ladies either in travelling or refreshing on Recreation.”71 In Quebec City, coffeehouse proprietors promoted their establishments in a similar fashion. During the late 1760s, the British Coffee House was known to host lectures in natural philosophy.72 Thomas Ferguson, owner of Merchant’s Coffee House, advertised the best “provisions, liquors and attendants, the country can produce,” adding that “dinners, suppers, &c. &c.,” could be provided at the “shortest notice,” and travellers could be provided with “good lodgings.”73 Likewise, John Frank’s Tavern and Coffee-House at the FreeMasons-Hall in Quebec City also boasted a variety of services, “where Ladies and Gentlemen can be accommodated with Board, convenient Lodgings, Breakfasts, Dinners, &c. Coffee or Tea provided at short notice … with the best viands and liquors that can be procured.”74 The promotion of the coffeehouse as genteel enough for ladies as well as gentlemen illustrates how this type of establishment was purposely fashioned in the press as a forum for proper interaction, a sociability that was markedly different than that found in the typical colonial alehouses. Perhaps it was the colonial belief that coffeehouses were a more exclusive and elevated place of sociability that prompted colonial coffeehouse 68 Nova-Scotia Chronicle, 24 October 1769, 343. 69 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 16 May 1780, 3. 70 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 2 March 1782, 3 and Halifax Weekly Chronicle, 19 November 1791, 2. 71 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 14 September 1779, 3. 72 Quebec Gazette, 14 September 1769, 3. 73 Quebec Herald, 24 November 1788, 1. 74 Quebec Herald, 22 June 1789, 267.

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proprietors to charge – at least initially – a subscription fee. In the London coffeehouses, it was common to pay an initial charge, such as a penny upon entering the coffeehouse (that was used to defray the cost of lighting and newspapers) and then two pence for a cup of tea or coffee.75 Traditionally, scholars of the coffeehouse have viewed this fee as having a permissive, rather than restrictive, function. As coffeehouse historian Aytoun Ellis famously wrote, “one penny was all that was needed by any man, rich or poor, to gain entry.”76 In America, however, literary historian David Shields argues that a subscription fee was used to cover necessary expenses and as a deterrent, as it paid “for candles and the many newspapers dispersed through the room, [and] it served in effect to keep the indigent out-of-doors.”77 It appears that in Halifax and Quebec City subscription fees were employed by coffeehouse proprietors to both pay for expensive necessaries and to add an additional cachet of respectability and exclusivity. In Halifax, an advertisement under the heading “Subscription CoffeeRoom” praised the opening of the coffee room at the Prince Edward Hotel in 1795. Observing the popularity of the newly opened establishment, the advertisement proclaimed that: “The Subscription is already signed by a great Number of the principal Merchants and Inhabitants. – Such Gentlemen as choose to join in so laudable an Undertaking, can be informed of the Rules and Terms of the Subscription by applying to Mr. Wm. Williams, who is appointed Treasurer to the Subscribers.”78 From the language used, it is clear that the proprietor was trying to convey the unique and elevated nature of his coffee room. The advertisement fashioned it as an orderly and “laudable” space with set rules of conduct, designed for “Gentlemen” and already receiving the patronage of Halifax’s “principal Merchants and Inhabitants.” There is no evidence of how much the subscription fee was; however, at the Exchange Coffee House in St John an annual levy of twenty shillings was not unheard of, and ensured patrons access to the coffeehouse as well as six different newspapers, candles, and writing paper.79 The early nineteenth-century travel writer John Lambert, in recounting the history of Quebec City’s Union Coffee House, observed that its proprietor once charged an 75 Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, 300. 76 Ellis, Penny Universities, 45. It was only later, Ellis continued, that fees increased and the coffeehouse transformed into a more exclusive club where the charge was seen as a deterrent. 77 Shields, Civil Tongues and Polite Letters in British America, 59. 78 Weekly Chronicle, 7 March 1795, 3. 79 nbm, Oversize Collections, OS F4, 1, Saint John Exchange Coffee House, subscription list, 1803–1804.

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a­ nnual subscription fee of two guineas. This fee was eventually dropped, which in Lambert’s estimation was a poor decision, since the room then became “open to all without distinction.”80 By drawing together disparate manuscript and print accounts, we can see that members of the colonial print community gravitated to the coffeehouses promoted as elite, refined, and British in late eighteenth-­ century Halifax and Quebec City. During his 1786 stay in the city, Joseph Hadfield made a point to observe the people that he encountered during one of his frequent visits to an unnamed coffeehouse.81 “In the evening we went to the Coffee House which is very much frequented. Mr. L[ymburner] took this opportunity of introducing me to the first characters of the place, among which were Captain Grant, who married the Baroness de Longeuil, Mr. Fraser, Mr. Lees, Mr. Lester, Mr. Blackwood, Mr. Freeman, Mr. Young, Mr. Cameron, Dr. Fisher, Mr. Harrison and Mr.  B. Frazier. We remained here till supper time, and then returned home.”82 Hadfield’s list observing merchants, physicians, militia officers, and bureaucrats offers a veritable cross-section of Quebec’s literate, English-speaking society. Juncken, who visited Merchant’s Coffee House – also in the Lower Town – almost daily tells of his association with a slightly less auspicious, though aspiring group of merchants and tradesmen, including “[William] George the Brewer,” “Furgusson [sic] the tailor,” auctioneer and schoolmaster Jones, and Moore.83 In a telling use of the press, coffeehouse proprietor Thomas Ferguson related his thanks after moving to larger premises in 1791, to “the Merchants, his friends and the public in general, to the commanders of vessels and transient gentlemen. &c. for their past favours” and requested their continued patronage for the newly reopened Merchant’s Coffee House.84 In Halifax, a similar group of merchants, ships’ captains, travellers, and civil and military officers could be found in the city’s coffeehouses. 80 Lambert, Travels Through Lower Canada, and the United States of America, in the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808, volume 1, 25–6. 81 Peter Moogk writes that the British Coffee House hosted a “mercantile group” that included some of the members listed in Hadfield’s account. See Moogk, “Young, John,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume 5, www.biographi.ca (accessed 1 May 2013). 82 Entry 31 July 1785, in Robertson, ed., An Englishman in America 1785, 125–6. Biographies of all in attendance with the exception of Constant Freeman can be found in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. All were merchants, with the exception of Garrison Surgeon Fisher, and most were members of the colonial militia. Documents from the Massachusetts Historical Society shed light on the mercantile life of Freeman. See mhs, Minot Family Papers. 83 banqq, P119, P1 Journal de Henry Juncken, typed transcription, 1788–1789, 16 December 1789, 149. 84 Quebec Herald, 2 May 1791, 1.

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Such was the case in August 1764 when Halifax merchant Henry Meriton asked his creditors to meet him at 5 o’clock one afternoon at the Pontac.85 A similar notice in the Halifax Gazette appealed to “Gentlemen in Trade” requesting them to meet at the British Coffee House on 26 December 1765, “as Matters of importance would be set before them.”86 Likewise, the merchant and diarist Simeon Perkins, member of the Nova Scotia legislature for Queen’s, occasionally writes of boarding at Sutherland’s Coffee House when in Halifax on business, or to attend the assembly.87 And in the late 1770s while in Halifax Perkins, with the governor, speaker, and members of assembly, had formal dinners at various coffeehouses in town.88 Colonists in mercantile and civic professions were not the only patrons who found the coffeehouse a familiar and attractive space for business, relaxation, and discussion. As with the merchants of the colony, the officers of the British Army and Royal Navy also embraced the coffeehouses of Quebec City and Halifax. It is perhaps unsurprising that the garrison – a physical extension of Empire, not unlike that of the coffeehouse – gained comfort from the coffee rooms stocked with British newspapers, with menus of traditional dishes and familiar beverages. Such was the importance of the coffeehouse to the entertainment of the military officers that they would even set up the establishments, when none existed, to ease the rigors of frontier life. British army lieutenant Thomas Anburey wrote89 of his captivity during the American Revolution: “It being the universal opinion throughout the army, that we shall remain prisoners the remainder of the war, the British officers contributed to render their situation as comfortable as the nature of the country will possibly allow, and to promote association, they have erected a coffee-house, a theatre, and a cold bath, to tense up the relaxed state of the body, the intense heat of the climate occasions.”90 The soldiers and officers who resided in, or

85 Halifax Gazette, 10 August 1754, 2. 86 Halifax Gazette, 26 December 1765, 4. 87 Thursday, 17 June, 1779, Innis, ed., The Diary of Simeon Perkins, 244; Saturday, 28 June, 1783, Harvey, ed., The Diary of Simeon Perkins, 191. 88 Saturday, 29 June [1779], Innis, ed., The Diary of Simeon Perkins, 124; Friday, 30 [June 1797], Fergusson, ed., The Diary of Simeon Perkins, 35. 89 In 1776, Anburey left England for Canada as an ensign in the British army and subsequently served during the Revolutionary War. Many of his anecdotes and observations were later found to be plagiarised, or embellished from a variety of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century authors on America. See Bell Jr, “Thomas Anburey’s ‘Travels Through America’: A Note on Eighteenth-century Plagiarism,” 23–36. 90 Anburey, Travels through the interior parts of America, 442–3.

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visited, Halifax and Quebec City did not have to set up temporary coffeehouses; instead they had the choice of several existing establishments. Coffeehouses provided hospitable quarters for travelling officers, an informal space where officers could be entertained and refreshed, discuss current events, or recall past campaigns. In Halifax, the surgeon Julius Friedrich Wasmus wrote in 1781 that a British military party consisting of “Capt. Tonge, his 2 lieuts., the doctor and I moved into the big coffeehouse, called ‘The Golden Ball,’ by Mr. O’Brien.”91 There the party stayed until a ship could be found to continue Wasmus’s journey to Quebec. Coffeehouse proprietors, seeing military officers as respectable and valuable customers, publicly encouraged their custom. In July 1789 Ferguson took out an advertisement in the Quebec Herald on the occasion of the departure of the 53rd Regiment to thank the officers of the regiment for their patronage and to wish them a “pleasant and speedy passage to their desired port.”92 Military officers, in particular, provided a direct, physical link to the opinions and customs of Great Britain, as well as offering a global perspective on any discussions of colonial affairs. As in the case of colonial theatre, members of the British Army and Royal Navy felt comfortable in the convivial and familiar space of British custom that undoubtedly eased the rigors of garrison duty half a world from home. On the other hand, Black and First Nations inhabitants – mentioned later as tavern patrons and proprietors in the colonial interior93– are virtually ignored in both the manuscript and print accounts of the coffeehouses of eighteenth-century Halifax and Quebec City. In Quebec City, this may be partly attributable to the fact that the local Algonquin peoples had avoided integration with the French settlement and this separation continued after the installation of the British colonial administration.94 The Mi’kmaq residing near Halifax had endured years of strenuous and hostile relations with the settlers95 and contemporary reports observe that they frequently conducted business on their own terms or on their 91 Doblin and Lynn, “Nova Scotian Entries from the Journal of Julius Freidrich Wasmus, Surgeon, 1781,” 25. 92 Quebec Herald, 3 August 1789, 319. 93 For example, Captain Thomas, “an Indian of considerable consequence” from the Montreal era, stayed and conducted business at the coffeehouse when in Kingston during the 1790s. See Langton, ed. Campbell, Travels in the interior inhabited parts of North America in the years 1791 and 1792, 138. Further into the interior, it was also not uncommon to find First Nations people not only conducting business in public houses, but also being the proprietors. See ibid., 184, 216; Johnson, ed., “A Six Nations Council at Fort George, October 8, 1803,” in The Valley of the Six Nations, 105. 94 See Jaenen, Friend and Foe; Dickason, The Myth of the Savage; Ruddel, Québec City, 43–63. 95 Upton, “Colonists and Micmacs,” 44–56; Upton, Micmacs and Colonists.

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own territory, avoiding Halifax and its Anglo-centric coffeehouses.96 In regard to the colonial Black community, relatively few Blacks (and even fewer free Blacks) lived in Quebec and Nova Scotia before the American Revolution.97 Even after the Revolutionary War influx, Black settlements such as Birch Town (near Shelburne) and Preston (near Halifax) were physically and culturally separated from white society.98 Irrespective of the costs involved in frequenting coffeehouses, such social separation may have made the establishments an unappealing place for Blacks to congregate. Furthermore, coffeehouses were also well-known places of auction, including slave auctions in some American colonies, which may have given the institution an added stigma for Black colonists.99 One did not have to be of Black, First Nations, or lower-class origin to feel alienated from the British-fashioned sociability of coffeehouses. In Maurice Lemire’s comprehensive study of the literary culture of eighteenth-century Quebec, he and his team of historians identify several agents and fora of the colony’s intellectual culture, in particular highlighting the importance of societies (les pratiques associatives), theatre, print, and publishing. Quebec’s coffeehouses are not to be found in this otherwise exhaustive analysis.100 More recently, historian Yves Lamonde argues that Quebec enjoyed a rich intellectual culture marked by “desgroupes sociaux [qui] suscient une activité intellectuelle remarquable dont la Chambre d’assemblée, les brochures, les « gazettes » et les cafés deviennent les ­forums.”101 Yet, his mentioning of the cafés of Quebec is a nominal acknowledgement, and Lamonde focuses instead on the other fora that exhibited what he calls the traces of “opinion publique naissante.”102 Did French Canadians in Quebec City, then, avoid the coffeehouses that were purposely fashioned in a model of British gentility? The scarcity of primary documents concerning coffeehouse life makes it difficult to draw any concrete conclusions. As historian David-Thierry Ruddel has observed, the English-speaking merchants of Quebec enjoyed a “slightly higher status” than the French, and it appears that the coffeehouse

96 For example nsarm, MG 1, Volume 797 a–d (c)#1, Rev. John Seccombe Journal. 97 Numbers of the Black community before the Revolutionary War are incomplete. For Quebec see Trudel, L’esclavage au Canada Français; Trudel, Dictionnaire des esclaves et de leurs propriétaires. 98 James Walker writes of parallel societies amongst blacks and whites. See Walker, The Black Loyalists, 85. 99 Nash, The Urban Crucible, 68.  100 Lemire, ed., La vie littéraire au Québec. 101 Lamonde, Histoire sociale des idées au Québec, 18. 102 Ibid.

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appealed to that perceived elevation.103 Nonetheless, if French Canadians wanted to interact with English-speaking colonists in the coffeehouse, then they would undoubtedly attend. Indeed, reports such as those found in the Quebec Gazette during 1792 observed that the Constitutional Club (formed to debate the impact of the Constitutional Act) boasted a mixed Anglophone and Francophone membership and met at Frank’s Coffee House and Tavern.104 The two requisite elements of the Britishstyled coffeehouse was entertainment (print or otherwise) and discussion, two elements that appear to have been conducted in the English language. Even French Canadians with the necessary language skills may have preferred to discuss ideas in a more private setting, such as the salon, where participants could freely express their thoughts in their native tongue in a manner characteristic of the intellectual custom of France.105 In the late eighteenth century, coffeehouses in Halifax and Quebec City were exclusive spaces of entertainment and exchange. During the day, colonial coffeehouses accommodated merchants, military officers, and other citizens who engaged in business or simply desired a respite between engagements. In the evenings, coffeehouse proprietors tried to lure back the same clientele by promoting entertainments so suitably genteel that they could be enjoyed by “gentlemen” and “ladies” alike. Print proved to be integral to both the operation and the perception of coffeehouses in the colonial capitals. Fashioned on a British model of sociability, coffee rooms and coffeehouses became natural hubs of specifically English-language communication. The British North American coffeehouse was neither a “penny university” nor an egalitarian space that encouraged deliberative democracy. Instead, coffeehouses can be considered central to the process of elite formation in the two capitals. As a space of refined sociability, members of the print community turned to the coffeehouse as a suitable place to host the exclusive clubs and subscription societies. While taverns and alehouses of all stripes abounded in Halifax and Quebec City, it was the coffeehouses that solely graced the newspapers where they were extolled both in advertisements and reports that highlighted the genteel and uniquely British traits of the establishments to their predominately literate clientele. 103 Ruddel, Québec City, 61. 104 The club, by its own admission, was founded to promote an understanding of the British Constitution, the Quebec Act, and the Constitutional Act, as well as to promote agriculture and commerce for the good of the colony. See Hare, Aux Origines du Parlementarisme Québécois, 38–43, 45. 105 On the Quebec salon tradition see Trudel, L’influence de Voltaire au Canada and Hare, “Le rôle des salons littéraires à Montreal au tournant du XIXe siècle,” in Portrait des arts, des lettres et de l’éloquence au Québec, ed. Andrès, 167–80.

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C o n c l u sion

The Colonial Print Community’s Imprint on British North America

In the second half of the eighteenth century printers, readers, and contributors in Halifax and Quebec City coalesced around the printed word. They formed an English-language, colonial print community that transcended regional differences and functioned in quite similar and overarching ways. This common thread of print meant that strangers such as the merchant Henry Juncken in Quebec City could connect, criticize, or concur with Lieutenant William Dyott stationed in Halifax. Similarly, the pseudonymous Quebec commentator Pro Bono Publico could be aware of the same British, literary touchstones as the writer who fashioned himself Publicola in Nova Scotia. This print community consisted of colonial officials, military and naval officers, merchants, businessmen, members of the clergy, farmers, clerks, and craftsmen, all of whom turned to the press for reassurance and for direction on how to prosper. Members, both from British North America’s government and governed, used the printed word as a bulwark against an unfamiliar climate, unstable economic conditions, and myriad other challenges on the Atlantic periphery of empire. They also used print as a means to define and communicate what they believed were essential British values that, in their view, transcended place. “The English have adopted in their literature,” a Prussian visitor to England wrote, a sense of: liberty, or rather this propriety of thinking and of acting; and it is this that we are indebted for so many bold systems, so many spirited and useful truths, with which their philosophers and mathematicians have enriched human nature. From thence also pr oceed that daring flight of genius, and those new paths which their historians and poets have opened and which they have, as it were, enlarged the world of ideas.1 1 Nova-Scotia Magazine 2, no. 3 (1790): 175–6.

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As we have seen, arguments such as this one (carefully selected by the editor of the Nova-Scotia Magazine) did not fall upon deaf ears in British North America. The colonial print community believed in an innate power of British literature and of domestically produced print written in the British style. It was a style purposefully designed to inculcate the reader with desirable beliefs, methodologies, traditions, norms, and manners deemed essential to both colonial life and participation in a broader British Atlantic world. In both capitals, members of this colonial print community also believed that the domestic press had an inherent power to preserve and diffuse ideas, a power with the potential to inspire the imagination and initiate action in everyday life. In 1789, printer William Moore published in his Quebec Herald the poem “On a printing-office” that underscored what he perceived to be the greater relationship between print and daily life: The world’s a printing-house; our words, our thoughts, Our deeds are characters of different sizes: Each soul is a compos’tor, of whose faults The Levites are correctors; Heav’n revises: Death is the common press; from whence being driv’n, We’re gather’d, sheet by sheet, and bound for Heav’n.2

In Moore’s view, the production of print shared such an intimate bond with daily life that the one could be given as a metaphor for the other. Interestingly, in citing this poem, Moore gave no indication of its author,3 nor did he have to. To be a member of the colonial print community in British North America implied that one already had a background in the myriad tropes and clichés of British literary culture. To be a member of the colonial print community meant that one also believed in the value of the press to improve both self and society at large. The study of a colonial print community offers new perspectives on the cultural identity and cohesiveness of English-speaking inhabitants in British North America. Indeed, a “Canadian Mosaic” of different peoples with diverging cultural and political beliefs existed in the late 2 Quebec Herald, 18 March 1790, 136. 3 The verse is an epitaph originally published in the Divine Fancies (1687) by the English writer Frances Quarles. It can be found excerpted in various newspapers and magazines throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, often unattributed but sometimes erroneously attributed to Benjamin Franklin. See Bates, “Franklin’s Epitaph,” 419–21.

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eighteenth century.4 The English-language press in the capitals offered a vehicle with the potential to bring sense and cultural unity to this fractured environment. The common beliefs that the medium communicated ranged from the literary to the scientific. From tracts on the nature of civic engagement and public good to articles on the importance of order, first principles, and useful knowledge the colonial print community had at their disposal a lexicon inspired by the Enlightenments of the eighteenth century. The British North American discourse, however, was one that favoured consensus and balance over discord and radical change. Its study offers an important case study of how seemingly analogous inhabitants in eighteenth-century British America could respond so differently to a standard and shared corpus of cultural touchstones and ideas. This study of the situation in both Quebec and Nova Scotia is a holistic interpretation of an era that is often seen through a regional lens. In particular, it provides an important corrective to the cultural history of late eighteenth-century Quebec that has focussed on the small though dynamic group of French-Canadian intellectuals who forged an elite cadre around sociability and the French-language press of late eighteenth-­ century Montreal. The existence of an English-language colonial print community does not diminish the cultural importance of this FrenchCanadian cultural and print history, but rather shows that a similar process was happening concurrently in the English press and was experienced across British North America. It also underscores that the roots for English-Canadian literary and social advances, once thought to be the cultural baggage of the loyalists, were well established before the American Revolution. Indeed, the dynamic role that domestic print played in the two capitals can be traced to the very inception of the presses. The American Revolution and the subsequent arrival of the loyalists – often seen by scholars as a watershed in the political and cultural history of British North America – did not appreciably change the underlying principles that members of the colonial print community had attributed to the press. The United Empire Loyalists may have possessed a passion for British literature, believed in the utility of print knowledge, and advocated both the liberty and propriety of the press, but such ideas already ­existed in Halifax or Quebec City by the time of their arrival. Indeed, 4 Elizabeth Mancke cites John A. Porter (The Vertical Mosaic), J.M.S. Careless (“Limited Identities in Canada”), and J.M. Bumsted (“The Cultural Landscape of Early Canada”) as core interpretations that support the idea of a diverse, cultural mosaic. See Mancke, “Another British America.”

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the  Loyalist diaspora led to an increased number of print subscribers and augmented participation in the newspapers and magazines of the two capitals. The fundamental beliefs in the importance of the liberty and propriety of the press, the power of the press to influence behaviour, and the utility of the British messages that it conveyed can be seen from the beginning of the press era in the two capitals. Print’s value also lay in its multifaceted nature, being a means of sociability that could also inform and direct other forms of interaction and behaviour. Members of the colonial print community were conscious of a larger audience whom they sometimes addressed as their fellow “readers” or the “public.” They believed they were a part of a kind of “virtual contract,” an unwritten understanding of conduct and expectations. Like the revered English constitution, the domestic press functioned partially on precedent, with its contributors citing past examples of discourse in the attempt to shape the form of present or future discourse. Consensus was sought, though not always achieved. Dissenting voices as well as new, userdefined rules occasionally ran afoul of expectations and tradition, and debate ensued. Members of the print community helped to shape British North America through the use of the press. Some saw newspapers and the printed word as a means to level, improve, educate, and even elevate colonial society. The press was generally lauded for a perceived ability to both communicate knowledge and expand reader participation. However, the press could also be used by those who wanted to consolidate colonial power, or aspire to it. Some members of the colonial print community strategically used newspapers to help construct and reinforce a provincial elite by promoting British traditions and privileged forms of sociability, such as the theatre, coffeehouse, clubs, and societies. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, the situation that fostered the print community had already begun to change. Other towns such as St John and Montreal had eclipsed the capitals of Halifax and Quebec City in population, economic growth, and cultural activities.5 The presses in the capitals would continue and grow but instead of being a primary and privileged voice, the newspapers of Halifax and Quebec City increasingly became part of a chorus of colonial opinion. With the dawn of the nineteenth century, the newspapers of Nova Scotia and Upper and Lower Canada became more partisan and increasingly fragmented. A growing and emboldened population of colonial printers became more concerned with specific political, cultural, and (in Lower 5 Smith, Too Soon the Curtain Fell; Bell, Early Loyalist Saint John; Acheson, Saint John; Macdougall, The Evolution of Business Education in New Brunswick; Rumilly, Histoire de Montreal ; Tessier, Histoire de la rivalité Québec-Montréal ; Linteau, Brève histoire de Montréal.

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Canada) linguistic issues and worried less about the need to address the entire colonial print community. The print culture of colonial Canada turned a corner with the dawn of the nineteenth century and a more overtly politicized press would, as scholars have argued, usher in a new era in the Canadas and the Maritimes.6 The study of the early press and the colonial print community offers an important perspective on the role of print in the formative years of these two British colonial capitals. From the crowded wharves of Halifax to the congested Upper Town of Quebec, a new print literacy emerged in the second half of the eighteenth century. It was a literacy of cultural touchstones, literature, history, natural philosophy, political writing, and social graces. It was a literacy shared by those in the colonies with the time to read, the predisposition to ponder, and the inclination to write. It was a literacy possessed by a colonial print community who employed print to set the boundaries of their society – to observe, criticize, or otherwise regulate the behaviour of its readers. In this milieu, the press afforded a means to a greater discourse, and the ability to either reject or aspire to the vision of society it presented. It was a discourse not only of popular trends and suitable politics, but also of science and literature. Simultaneously sophisticated, amusing, insightful, and ridiculous, the content of the colonial press was crafted and used by members of this print community to bring order to their environment, promote their interests, and fashion their success. For the colonial print community, British North America was indeed “like a printing house,” where those who comprised its ranks hoped to leave a lasting impression.

6 The growth of the nineteenth-century press, particularly of its role in politics, is well documented. For some examples see Martel, “The Press of the Maritimes in the 1830s”; Wallace, “The First Journalists in Upper Canada”; Harvey, “The Intellectual Awakening of Nova Scotia,” in Historical Essays on the Atlantic Provinces, ed. Rawlyk, 99–121; Wallot, “Le Bas-Canada et les Imprimés”; Hare, Les imprimés dans le Bas-Canada ; Kesterton, A History of Journalism in Canada; Parker, “Joseph Howe as Publisher”; Inness, “Joseph Howe”; Benn, “The Upper Canadian Press”; Parker, The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada; McNairn, The Capacity to Judge.

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Appendices

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Appendix i

A Selection of Societies and Clubs in Halifax and Quebec City, 1760–1800

Halifax societies and clubs, in order of appearance (not including Freemasons), 1769–1800 Name

Known Appearance

“Old” Union Fire Club

14 January Fire Society 1754

The Friendly Society

1765

Benevolent or Mixed; met at Friendly Society house of “Mr. John Simpson, Halifax”

Halifax Gazette, 24 October 1765, 2.

North British Society, or “Scots Club”

1768

Benevolent or Scots Community Friendly Society

MG 20, Volume 230, North British Society, Treasurer's Records, Articles of the North British Society, 1768.

Yorkshire Club

1776

Formal Private Society

Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 28 May 1776, 3.

Whist Club

1783?

Informal Private Edward Winslow Society “Townsend, Brentley & Coffin”

MG23-D1 Ward Chipman (Senior and Junior) fonds, Reel C-1180.

Saturday’s Club 1783?

Informal Private Edward Winslow Society “Townsend, Brentley & Coffin”

MG23-D1 Ward Chipman (Senior and Junior) fonds, Reel C-1180.

Charitable Irish 1786 Society

Benevolent or Irish Community Friendly Society

MG 100, Volume 158, #5, Halifax: Societies: Charitable Irish.

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Type of Club

Membership Mixed Subscribers

Military

Reference Found In 5 UNION FIRE-CLUB Halifax. Rules and Orders to be observed by the Members… First Instituted at Halifax on the 14th Day of January, 1754, and thence continued to the 14th day of January 1759… (Halifax: John Bushell, 1759); Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, 8 March 1774, 3.

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Appendix I

Halifax societies and clubs, in order of appearance, 1769–1800 (Continued) Name

Known Appearance

Marine Society

1786

Type of Club

Membership

Reference Found In

Benevolent or Friendly Society Self-titled: “Humane Society”

Sailors, Mariners and Merchants; “formed by about twenty Masters of Vessels… joined by two or three merchants.”

Dr. Brown’s Sermon on the Dangers and Duties of the Seafaring Life, 1793; Weekly Chronicle, 3 January 1795, 1.

Loyal and 1787 Friendly Society of the Blue and Orange

Formal Private Society

Military

Dyott’s Diary, Volume 1.

Agriculture 1789 Society of Nova Scotia

Public Improvement Society

Mixed Subscribers

Various newspapers.

Prince Edward’s 1790s Literary Coterie

Formal Private Society

HRH Edward, Drs. Clark & Halliburton, Geddes Brothers

Proceedings of the North British Society.

Halifax Freemasons lodges in order of appearance Name

Known Appearance

Membership

Select References

St Andrew’s Lodge, No. 155; Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, No. 1

Warrant: 27 December 1757 Grand Lodge Warrant: 2 June 1784

Varied; met MG 20, Volume 2032, Grand Lodge of Nova at Pontac’s Scotia, #1, Letterbook, 1792–1795; MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #16, Miscellaneous History, “The Second Provincial Lodge of Nova Scotia. (1784–1829).”

St John’s Lodge, (No. 1) No. 2; also known as No. 211 and “No.1 Ancient York Masons”

Warrant: 13 June 1780; 1780–1837

Varied; met MG 20, Volume 2003, Grand Lodge of Nova at Golden Scotia, #5, St John’s Lodge No. 2 (Halifax), Ball 1780–1837; Robertson, History of Freemasonry, 155.

Lodge No. 134, 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot

1782–84

Military

MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #11, Lodge No. 134, 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1782–1784.

Virgin Lodge No. 3, or Artillery Lodge, No. 2

1782

Military

MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #2, Virgin Lodge No. 3, or Artillery Lodge, No. 2, (Halifax), 1782.

No. 3 Thistle Lodge, 82nd Regiment

1783

Military

MG 20, Volume 2006, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #3, Thistle Lodge, 82nd Regiment (Halifax), 1783–1784.

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Societies and Clubs in Halifax and Quebec City 197

Halifax Freemasons lodges in order of appearance (Continued) Name

Known Appearance

Membership

Select References

Union Lodge No. 1

1784–1834

Varied

MG 20, Volume 2006, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #7, Union Lodge No. 1 (Halifax), 1784–1834.

Lodge No. 169, 17th Regiment of Foot

1784

Military

MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #7, Lodge No. 169, 17th Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1784.

Lodge No. 63, 20th Regiment of Foot,

1784

Military

MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #8, Lodge No. 63, 20th Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1784.

Lodge No. 52, 37th Regiment of Foot

1784–89

Military; Dyott

MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #10, Lodge No. 52, 37th Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1784–1789.

Sion Lodge No. 3, 1786–91 57th Regiment of Foot,

Military

MG 20, Volume 2006, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #6, Sion Lodge No. 3 (Halifax), 57th Regiment of Foot, 1786–1791.

Royal Navy Lodge, No. 18

1787–1804

Royal Navy

MG 20, Volume 2003, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #4, Royal Navy Lodge No. 18, 1787–1804.

Lodge No. 293, 16th (Buckinghamshire) Regiment of Foot

1791–92

Military

MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #6, Lodge No. 293, 16th (Buckinghamshire) Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1791–1792.

Royal Nova Scotia Regiment Lodge, No. 24

1793–1820

Military

MG 20, Volume 2004, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, Royal Nova Scotia Regiment Lodge, No. 24, 1793–1820.

Lodge No. 538 / 580, 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot

1799

Military

MG 20, Volume 2007, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #12, Lodge No. 538 / 580, 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1799.

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198

Appendix I

Quebec City societies and clubs, in order of appearance (not including Freemasons), 1769–1800 Name

Known Dates

Type of Club

Membership

Select References

Barons Club

Winter 1761

Formal Private Society

Merchants (including John Melvin, John Lees and John Painter)

Quebec Herald, 18 May 1789, 233; Quebec Herald, 20 January 1791, 71; Quebec Herald, 24 January 1791, 76; Moore’s Pocket Almanack, 1792, 25.

Fire Society

1765

Fire Society

Mixed Subscribers Moore’s Pocket Almanack, 1792, 24.

Amicable Society  /  Société favorable Société amiable (1772)

1770

Fire Society

Mixed; A. Martin (1770); Robert Woolsey (1771), secretary

Order of the Gateau

1773

Informal Private

Minerva Free 1777 Debating Society

Debating Society

Varied

Quebec Gazette, 23 January 1777, 3; Quebec Gazette, 30 January 1777, 4; Quebec Gazette, 6 February 1777, 4; Quebec Gazette, 13 February 1777, 4.

Quebec Library

1778

Public Library

Mixed Public Subscribers

Various newspaper; library catalogues.

Merchants’ Club 1789

Formal Private Society

Merchants

Quebec Herald, 11 to 18 May 1789, 233.

Agriculture Society of Quebec

1789

Public Improvement Society

Mixed Public Subscribers

Quebec Gazette; Quebec Herald

Quebec Benevolent Society

1789

Benevolent or Friendly Society

Varied Public Subscribers

Quebec Gazette; Quebec Herald

Pye Club

1790

Formal Private Society

Veterans of 1775–76

1790

Formal Private Society

Military

Quebec Herald, 29 April 1790, 181. etc.

Debating Society

Clerks

Quebec Herald

Constitutional Club

26 December Debating 1791 Society

Varied

Quebec Gazette

Loyal Association

1794

Varied

Tremaine, Early Canadian Imprints, 425–6.

Quebec Clerk 1790 Club (Proposed)

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Patriotic Association

Quebec Gazette, 15 November 1770, 3; Quebec Gazette, 16 May 1771, 3; Quebec Gazette, 13 August 1772, 3.

P 450, Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960-01544 / 1, M.S.S. Letters, Anecdotes, Statistics, &c. James Thompson, Sr. 1788–1833, Volume I.

Quebec Herald, 25 March 1790, 141.

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Societies and Clubs in Halifax and Quebec City 199 Quebec City Freemasons in order of appearance Name

Known Appearance

Membership

Select References

The Grand Lodge

[1780]

Mixed; “meets the Almanach de Québec, 1780, 1st Monday in march, 60. June, September and December, at the house of Brother Bacon”

Stewart’s or “Select” Lodge

1759–68

Mixed

Graham, Outlines of the History of Free-masonry, 38, 41.

Merchants’ Lodge No. 1 (Modern then “healed” as Antient)

1759–90 Registered in England: 1762 Antient: 1791

Mixed; predominately merchants; “[meets] the 1st and 3d Thursdays in every month” (Almanach de Québec 1780, 60.)

The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, England Merchants’ Lodge, No.151 [erased], Quebec GBR 1991 AR / 467, 1765–1789; Graham, Outlines of the History of Free-masonry, 38, 41–2.

St Andrew’s Lodge 1760–89 No. 2 Warrant: (78th Highlanders) 20 October 1760 Registered in England: 1762

Mixed; predominately Scots “[meets] the 2d Thursday” (Almanach de Québec 1780, 60)

The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, England, St Andrew’s Lodge, No. 152 [erased], Quebec GBR 1991 AR / 476, 1760–1789; Graham, Outlines of the History of Free-masonry, 38, 42–56.

Lodge No. 5, HMS Canceaux

1768-?

Navy (one of only three naval lodges warranted)

Graham, Outlines of the History of Free-masonry, 38, 61-63.

St Patrick’s Lodge No. 3

1777–92 Registered in England: 1762

Mixed; predominately The Library and Museum Irish; meets “1st of Freemasonry, London, Monday” England, St Patrick’s Lodge, No. 153 [erased], Quebec GBR 1991 AR / 520, 1777–1789; Almanach de Québec 1780, 60; Graham, Outlines of the History of Free-masonry, 38, 56–7.

Anbak Zum Temple Lodge, No. 12

[1780]

Mixed; “1st & 3d Saturdays in every month”

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Almanach de Québec, 1780, 60.

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200

Appendix I

Quebec City Freemasons in order of appearance (Continued) Name

King’s Lodge, No. 8, 8th Regiment of Foot

Known Appearance

Membership

Select References

[1780]

Military

Almanach de Québec, 1780, 60.

St George’s Lodge, [1780] No. 108, 31st Regiment

Military

Almanach de Québec, 1780, 60.

Lodge No. 195, 8th Regiment of Foot

[1780]

Military

Almanach de Québec, 1780, 60.

Lodge, No. 236, 53rd Regiment of Foot

[1780]

Military

Almanach de Québec, 1780, 60.

“Barry” Lodge, 34th Regiment of Foot (Lt Col Barry St Leger)

15 November 1784 (reg: in England)

Military

Graham, Outlines of the History of Freemasonry, 40, 71.

“Rainsford” Lodge, 1784 (reg: in 44th Regiment England) of Foot (Col. Rainsford)

Military

Graham, Outlines of the History of Freemasonry, 40, 71–3.

Anhalt-Zerbst 1787 Regiment (German), No. 516

Military

Graham, Outlines of the History of Freemasonry, 40.

St John’s Lodge, No. 3 (Antient)

1788

Mixed

Osborne, A Concise History of Freemasonry in Canada, 82.

Albion Lodge, No. 9 (Antient)

1752 (in Quebec starting 1790)

Military

Graham, Outlines of the History of Freemasonry, 39.

n.b.: In 1751, a division in the English Grand Lodge of freemasonry effectively created two Grand Lodges, neither of which would acknowledge the members of the other. The secessionist grand lodge believing to be better adherents of traditional masonry called themselves “antients,” and the initial Grand Lodge was referred to pejoratively as the “moderns.” All lodges in Quebec City were “moderns” unless otherwise stated.

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Appendix II

A Selection of Plays Performed at Halifax and Quebec City as Recorded in Newspapers and in Printers’ Records

Author

Play

Genre

1st Performance Place  / Date

Known Known Halifax Quebec City Date(s) Date(s)

Joseph Addison

The Drummer, or the Haunted House

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1716

n / a

1790

Isaac Bickerstaff

Love in a Village

Comic opera

Covent-Garden 1762

n / a

1786

The Hypocrite (taken from Molière & Cibber)

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1768

n / a

1790

Henry Brooke Henry Jones

The Earl of Essex

Tragedy

Covent-Garden 1753

n / a

1786

Susannah Centlivre

The Busy Body (The Busie Body)

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1709

n / a

1786; 1787

Stroke &c  /  A Bold Stroke Comedy for a Wife

1718

1768

1783; 1786

The Wonder (a Woman Keeps a Secret)

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1714

1768

1786; 1789

Love Makes the Man

Tragicomedy

Drury-Lane 1700

n / a

1786

The Provok’d Husband, or A Journey to London

Comedy

Theatre-Royal 1728

1789

n / a

Charles Coffey Devil to Pay (or, The & John Mottley Wives Metamorphos’d)

Ballad Opera

Drury-Lane 1731

n / a

1789

George Colman

The Duce is in Him

Comedy / Farce Drury-Lane 1766

1789

1789

Spanish Barber S. Arnold, music

Comic Opera

Hay-Market 1777

n / a

1791

Hannah Cowley

The Belle’s Stratagem

Comedy

Drury Lane 1780

1781

n / a

Colley Cibber

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202

Appendix II

Author Richard Cumberland

Play

Genre

1st Performance Place  / Date

Known Known Halifax Quebec City Date(s) Date(s)

The West-Indian

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1771

1787

1786; 1789

Fashionable Lover

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1772

n / a

1786

The Natural Son

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1785

n / a

1786

Liberty Asserted, or Canada Restored

Musical Tragedy

Lincoln’s Inn Fields 1704

n / a

1790

Robert Dodsley The King and Miller of Mansfield

History /  Tragedy

Drury-Lane 1737

n / a

1790

Rev. Henry Bate Dudley

Rival Candidates

Comic Opera

Drury-Lane 1775

n / a

1790

George Farquhar

The Beaux Stratagem

Comedy

Hay-Market 1707

1768; 1789

1786; 1789

The Recruiting Officer

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1706

1768

1773; 1786; 1789

The Mock Doctor Comedy (or the Dumb Lady Cur’d)

Drury-Lane 1732

1768

n / a

The Miser (taken from Plautus & Molière)

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1733

n / a

1789

Samuel Foote

Mayor of Garratt

Comedy / Satire London, c. 1764

n / a

1788[?]

David Garrick

The Lying Valet

Comedy / Farce Goodman’s Fields 1788 Theatre 1741

n / a

Lethe

Comedy / Satire Drury-Lane 1745

n / a

1787

Miss in Her Teens (or the Medley of Lovers)

Comedy / Farce Covent-Garden 1747

1768

n / a

Catherine and Petruchio

Comedy

Drury-Lane c. 1754–6

1768

1790

Gamesters

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1757

n / a

1786

The Guardian

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1759

1788

n / a

The Irish Widow

Comedy / Farce Drury-Lane 1772

n / a

1786

Bon Ton, or High Life Above the Stars

Comedy / Farce Drury-Lane 1775

1789

n / a

A Gentleman of Cambridge (John Rich)

Spirit of Contradiction

Comedy

Covent-Garden 1760

n / a

1789

Dr Oliver Goldsmith

She Stoops to Conquer (or, The Mistakes of a Night)

Comedy

Covent-Garden 1773

1789

1787; 1789

John Dennis

Dr Henry Fielding

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Plays Performed at Halifax and Quebec City 203

Author Hall Hartson

Play Countess of Salisbury

John Hippisley Connaught Wife

Genre

1st Performance Place  / Date

Known Known Halifax Quebec City Date(s) Date(s)

Tragedy

Hay-Market 1765

n / a

1786

Comedy

London 1767

n / a

1789

Dr Benjamin Hoadley

The Suspicious Husband Comedy

Covent-Garden 1747

1773

n / a

Thomas Holcroft

Follies of a Day (or the Marriage of Figaro)

Comedy

Covent-Garden 1784

n / a

1786

John Home

Douglas

Tragedy

Covent-Garden 1756

1768

1786 1789

Elizabeth Inchbald

I’ll Tell You What

Comedy

Hay-Market 1785

n / a

1789

Isaac Jackman, The Divorce lyrics; William Shield, music.

Comedy / Farce 1781

n / a

1789

Charles Johnson

Country Lasses (or, The Custom of the Manor)

Comedy

1715

n / a

1786

James Johnstone

Disbanded Officer, or the Baroness of Bruchsal

Comedy

Hay-Market 1786

n / a

1790

George Lillo

London Merchant (or the History of George Barnwell)

Tragedy

Drury-Lane 1731

1768

1786

William Lyon

Wrangling Lovers, or Like Master Like Man

Comedy / Farce Published in 1745 n / a

1789

Charles Macklin

Love à la Mode

Comedy

Covent-Garden 1782

n / a

1789

Molière, adapted by Hugh Kelly

School for Wives

Comedy Comedy

Paris 1662 Drury-Lane 1773

n / a

1790

Edward Moore The Foundling

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1748

n / a

1788

William Moore[?]

Fashionable Raillery

n / a

n / a

1785

n / a

Hannah More

The Fatal Falsehood

Tragedy

Covent-Garden 1779

n / a

1786

Drury-Lane 1758

1789

n / a

1768; 1773; 1789

1789

Covent-Garden 1767

n / a

1786

Comedy / Farce Covent-Garden 1772

n / a

1790

Arthur Murphy The Upholsterer The Citizen

Comedy / Farce Covent-Garden 1761

The School for Guardians Comedy William O’Brien

Cross Purposes

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Appendix II

Author John O’Keeffe

Play The Poor Soldier

Genre Comic Opera

1st Performance Place  / Date

Known Known Halifax Quebec City Date(s) Date(s)

Covent-Garden 1783

n / a

1790

Duke’s Theatre, London 1682; London revival, revised by John Phillip Kemble, 1795.

n / a

1790

Tragedy

Duke’s Theatre, London c. 1685; Revival DruryLane and Covent-Garden 1780s–90s.

n / a

1790

Frederick Pilon He wou’d be a Soldier

Comedy

Covent-Garden 1786

1789

n / a

Nicholas Rowe The Fair Penitent

Tragedy

Lincoln’s Inn Fields 1703

1768

n / a

Jane Shore

Tragedy

Drury-Lane 1714

1768

1786 1789

Romeo and Juliet

Tragedy

c. 1591–96

n / a

1786

Richard III

History /  Tragedy

c. 1595

n / a

1786

Henry IV

History /  Tragedy

c. 1596–7

n / a

1786 1787

The Merchant of Venice

Comedy (First Folio)

c. 1596–98

1789

1786

Merry Wives of Windsor

Comedy

c. 1597

n / a

1786

The Tempest

Tragicomedy /  Romance

c. 1611

n / a

1787

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Rivals

Comedy

Covent-Garden 1775

n / a

1786

School for Scandal

Comedy

Theatre-Royal 1777

1789

1786

Dr Tobias Smollett

The Reprisal (or the Tars of Old England)

Comedy

Drury-Lane 1757

1768

n / a

George Alexander Stevens

Lecture Upon Heads

Comedy / Satire Covent-Garden c. 1764

1785

1788 1789

Thomas Otway Venice Preserv’d, or a Plot Tragedy Discovered

The Orphan, or the Unhappy Marriage

William Shakespeare

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Plays Performed at Halifax and Quebec City 205

Author

Play

Genre

1st Performance Place  / Date

Rev. James Townley

Highlife Below the Stairs

Comedy / Farce Drury-Lane 1759

Unknown

Acadius, or Life in a Calm *

Various

Known Known Halifax Quebec City Date(s) Date(s) n / a

1783

Comedy

Halifax, N.S. 1774 1774

n / a

The Bargain

n / a

n / a

n / a

1787

(The Comic Tunes in the Royal Chace, or) Harlequin Skeleton

Ballads /  Pantomime

Covent-Garden c. 1765

n / a

1790

Courts Malopomene

n / a

n / a

n / a

1787

The Deaf Lovers

n / a

n / a

n / a

1786

Fair Canadian

n / a

n / a

n / a

1786

Le Fol Raisonable

n / a

n / a

n / a

1786

Humours

n / a

n / a

n / a

1787

Lady Pentweazle**

n / a

n / a

n / a

1790

Mirror

n / a

n / a

n / a

1787

Notifying the Orphan

n / a

n / a

n / a

1786

Prude

n / a

n / a

n / a

1790

Revenge

n / a

n / a

1768

1786

Siege of Quebec

n / a

n / a

n / a

1786

Solomangunda

n / a

n / a

n / a

1787

The Virgin Unmasked

Musical Farce

c. 1763

1768

1789

The Wapping Landlady

Comic Dance

1767

n / a

1790

The Muse in Good Humour

Variety (Songs, Poems, Tales)

c. 1745

n / a

1787

* One of the earliest known English-language plays written in British North America. ** Perhaps a variation of, or work inspired by, Samuel Foote’s play Taste (1752).

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Appendix iii

A Selection of Public Houses Identified as Coffeehouses in the Newspapers of Quebec City and Halifax 1764–1800 Quebec City Known Owner(s)

Establishment

Location

Known Activities

Known Patrons

British Coffee House

Mr Simpson Lower Town

Refreshments; n / a Auctions; Lectures

Franks Tavern and Coffee House

John Franks n / a

Refreshments; Meals; Lodgings Dances

“Ladies;” “Gentlemen”; Merchants; Military

Merchant’s Coffee House

Thomas Ferguson

Pre-1788: Lower Town Nov. 1788: Lower Town “house formerly Mr. McPherson’s Hotel” May 1790: “House formerly occupied by Mr. Baten as a Coffee House, No. 30, St. Peter Street”

Refreshments (coffee, tea, chocolate, liquor); Meals; Lodgings Auctions; Dances Mail for Packets; Concerts; Theatre

“Merchants,” “Ladies;” “Gentlemen;” “public in general;” “commanders of vessels;” “transient gentlemen;” Quebec Benevolent Society; Loyal Veterans of 1775–76; Officers of the 53rd Regiment; “Gentlemen of the Marine Department;” “most respectable citizens to the number of about 50.”

Miles Prentice’s Coffee-House

Miles Prentice

n / a

Refreshments

Military

No. 30, St Peter Street

n / a

n / a

Refreshments; Lodgings

“Gentlemen”

Mr Baten’s Mr Baten Coffee House (possibly Sun Tavern, Wolfe Tavern, or British Coffee House) Quebec Coffee House

Charles Daly Lower Town “opposite Alex Cairns the church”

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Coffeehouses at Halifax and Quebec City 207

Halifax Establishment

Known Owner(s)

Location

Known Activities

Known Patrons

Bristol Coffee House

Elizabeth Taylor “Road to old Blockhouse from Halifax”

Refreshments; “genteel Entertainment”

n / a

British Coffee House

Phillip Marchington Wyndham Madden

1780: Upper Water Street

Refreshments’ Meals; Concerts

Merchants; Governor and Lady Wentworth; North British Society; Charitable Irish Society.

Coffee House “with n / a the Approbation of his Excellency the Governor” (possibly the Pontac)

“two doors from the North Gate”

Refreshments (tea, coffee, chocolate); Dance lessons; French lessons

“Gentlemen”; “Ladies.”

Crown Coffee House

William Fury

“North-End;” “on the beach leading to His Majesty’s Dockyard”

Refreshments Employment Recruiting

n / a

Elizabeth Brehm’s Coffee House

Elizabeth Brehm “Brehm’s Farm”

Refreshments

n / a

Exchange Coffee House

n / a

n / a

Refreshments; Meals

Merchants; North British Society

Gallagher’s Coffee House (British Tavern)

Andrew Gallagher

Upper Water Street

n / a

Charitable Irish Society; North British Society; Freemasons

Golden Ball

Edward Phelon John O’Brien

Hollis and Sackville streets

Refreshments; Meals; Lodging

Masons; Military; Charitable Irish Society

Great Pontac

Decarteret[?] corner of Duke and George Suckling Water streets, “near the Edward Best North Gate” John Willis Peter Lennon

Refreshments; Meals; Auctions Theatre; Dances; Lodging

Gentlemen; Ladies; Merchants; Military; Freemasons; Members of the Legislature; North British Society

Jerusalem Coffee House

Wyndham Madden

n / a

n / a

Sutherland’s Coffee House

William Bedford Row Sutherland, later Mrs. Sutherland

Refreshments; Meals; Lodging

Lt Gov Parr; Prince William Henry; North British Society

Wentworth Coffee House

n / a

n / a

Refreshments; Meals; Lodging

Members of the Legislature

William Piggot’s Coffee-House

William Piggot

n / a

Refreshments

n / a

26742_Eamon_montage.indd 207

1789: Ordnance Yard, opposite Collin’s Wharf; Destroyed by fire 1837.

2015-02-24 11:03:57

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Bibliography

primary sources Archival Materials (Manuscripts, etc.) Bibliothèque et Archives nationales de Québec, Quebec City, Quebec E 1 Fonds Nouvelle-France. Intendants. P119, P1 Typed Copy of the Journal Henry Juncken, 1788–1789. P 119, P2 Journal of Henry Juncken, 1788–1789. P 192 Fonds Famille Neilson, 1960-01-141 / 7, “Saint Peter’s Lodge No. 4, Quebec,” 1768–1771. P 192 Fonds Famille Neilson, 1960-01-141 / 7, The Mason’s Manual. Comprising Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons, in Lower Canada: To which is added An Appendix, Containing various useful Charges, etc. Quebec: T. Cary, 1818. P 193 Fonds Imprimerie Neilson. 1960-01-142 / 33. Letterbook. 1793–1798. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 1. Journal, James Thompson Sr, 1759. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1960-01-544 / 1. Journal of James Thompson Sr, 1775–76. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 1. Journal of James Thompson Sr, 1779–81. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 7. Journal of James Thompson, Sr, 1781–82. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 7. Journal of James Thompson, Sr, 1783–1784. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 7. Journal of James Thompson, Sr, 1784–87. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 1. Journal of James Thompson Sr, 1787–88.

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P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 1. M.S.S. Letters, Anecdotes, Statistics, &c. James Thompson Sr 1788–1833, Volume I. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 4. “James Thompson, Sr. Reminiscences Recorded by his Son, James Thompson, Jr.” P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1972-00-085 / 6. “Fonds James Thompson Textes divers sur sa famille.” 1805–1866. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1972-00-085 / 6. “Plans et journal de la construction de la maison Thompson, rue St. Ursule, à Québec.” 1791–1800. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1972-00-085 / 7. “Year 1765 to 1838 Thompson – Harrower Family Papers” [In Photo Album]. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 5. Minutes of Agriculture Society of Quebec, 1789–1792. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 5. “Copy Book of Letters Written on the business of the Quebec Branch of the Agriculture Society,” 1789–1799. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 6. “Wilcocke, Samuel Hull.” P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 7. Journal de Johann Conrad Weiser ou Christian Daniel Claus. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1960-01-544 / 20. P 450 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 1972-00-085 / 6. Commonplace Book “Geo. Thompson / Lieut. Roy. Artillery” 1814. TL1 Fonds Nouvelle-France. Cour de la Prevoté de Québec. TP1 Fonds Nouvelle-France. Conseil Souverain.

Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts MS.Am.395 Letter George Deblois (Lunenburg) to Gilbert Deblois (Boston), 27 November 1787. Mss.Acc 2713(6), Letters of Eliza Kent (Halifax) to Mrs Belknap (Boston), 1789–1793.

Cambridge Military Library, Special Collections, Halifax, Nova Scotia Elliott, Shirley B. (Wolfville, Nova Scotia). “A Library for the Garrison and Town: A History of the Cambridge Military Library, Royal Military Park, Halifax, Nova Scotia.” unpublished manuscript, c. 1990.

Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario MG8-E1 Military Government of Quebec. “Report on the Government of Quebec and Dependencies thereof 1762.” by James Murray. MG11-CO220 Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Sessional Papers. Journals of the Legislative Council. MG11-CO220 Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Sessional Papers. Minutes of the Executive Council.

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Bibliography 211 MG19-A47 Thomas Hutchins fonds. 1772–1774. MG19-F1 Claus Family fonds. Miscellaneous Papers. Volume 1. Reel C-1478. MG19-F10 Edward Walsh fonds. 1776–1807. MG23-A6 Lord George Germain fonds. MG23-C6 Journal of Charles Inglis. Reel A-709. MG23-D1 Ward Chipman (Senior and Junior) fonds. MG23-GII12 Christopher C. Bird fonds. MG23-GII23 Adam Mabane fonds, 1783–1790; Military, medical, and judicial correspondence. MG23-GII24 William Hey fonds. MG23-GII25 T. Manning collection. MG23-GII29 Jean Guillaume DeLisle fonds. MG23-J8 John Enys and Family fonds. MG24-A3 Sir Howard Douglas and Family collection. Volume 7. MG24-B1 Neilson Family Collection. MG40-F1 Sir James McGrigor Collection. Volume 1. Reel A-875. MG55 / 23-No97. John Cochrane fonds. R2903-0-4-E (MG23-A7) Edmund Burke fonds. R3196-0-7-E Inglis Family fonds. R3234-0-2-E (MG23-GI3) David Chisholme fonds. R4300-0-8-E (MG24-F133) Sir George Collier fonds. “The War in America 1776, Original Manuscript Journal by Admiral Sir George Collier.” R5139-0-X-E (MG23-A3) Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney fonds. R5434-0-0-E (MG23-J7) Log Book of the H.M.S. Pegasus, 1786. R6131-0-1-E (MG23-D6) Mather Byles Jr and Family fonds. Copies of the Byles Papers found in the Massachusetts Historical Society. R6197-0-4-E Thomas Wright collection (Diary of Thomas Wright). Reel M-5498. R7255-0-6-E (MG23-GII22) Sir Frederick Haldimand collection.

Documentary Art from Library and Archives Canada C-000040. “Dance in the Château St. Louis, 1801.” By George Heriot. Acc. No. 1989-472-1. C-000252. “Minuets of the Canadians.” 1807. By George Heriot. Acc. No. 1989-479-3. C-000497. “View of the Entry of the Harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia with part of the Town taken from Dartmouth.” 1793. By Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin. C-000498. “View of the North Part of the Town of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Including Dockyard, the Bason Terminating the Harbour, and the Town of Dartmouth.” 1793. By Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin.

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C-001506. “Lower Town, Quebec.” 1777. By James Hunter. Acc. No. 1989-246-4. C-001513. “The Basin of Quebec.” 1779. By James Hunter. Acc. No. 1989-246-3. C-001514. “A View of the Citadel at Quebec.” 1784. By James Peachey. Acc. No. 1989-217-3.  C-001515. “A View of the City and Basin of Quebec.” 1784. By James Peachey. Acc. No. 1989-217-4.   C-002001. “Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown [Cornwall],” 6 June 1784. By James Peachey. Acc. No. 1989-218-1. C-002008. “A View of the City of Quebec.” c. 1784. By James Peachey. Acc. No. 1989-218-5. C-002009. “A View of the City of Quebec with the Citadel and Outworks on Cape Diamond.” c. 1785. By James Peachey. Acc. No. 1989-221-2. C-002482. “The Governor’s House and St. Mather’s Meeting House, Hollis Street ... Halifax.” 1764. By Richard Short, after Dominique Serres. Acc. No. 1990-53-1. C-0011214. “South Aspect of Halifax Nova Scotia in 1780.” By Edward Hicks. Acc. No. 1990-178-1. C-012744. “View of Quebec from Grant’s Wharf.” c. 1793. By George Heriot. Acc. No. 1989-470-1R . C-012746. “Quebec from Pointe Levis, S.E. View.” 1793. George Heriot. Acc. No. 1989-470-2R. C-012747. “View from Pointe Levis.” c. 1793. By George Heriot. Acc. No. 1989-470- 2V. C-012749. “View of Quebec from the North Side of the River St. Charles.” c. 1793. Acc. No. 1989-470-3V. C-012773. “Grant’s Wharf (Quebec).” c. 1793. By George Heriot. Acc. No. 1989-470- 22R. C-012774. “View at Cape Diamond from the River St. Lawrence.” c. 1793. By George Heriot. No. 1989-470-22V. C-012781. “Costume of Domiciliated Indians of North America.” c. 1807. By George Heriot. Acc. No. 1989-479-5. C-036647. “Micmac Indians near Halifax.” 1808. By John George Toler. Acc. No. 1970-188-2119. C-0045561. “A View of the Falls of Montmorency with General Haldimand’s Country House.” c. 1781–1784. By James Peachey. Acc. No. 1970-188-1505. C-113668. “An Officer of the British Army and a Merchant of Quebec in their Winter Dress.” 1810. By John Lambert. Acc. No. 1979-46-66.

Cartography from Library and Archives Canada NMC-000451. “A chart of the Harbour of Halifax, in Nova Scotia.” 1759. By Charles Morris.

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Bibliography 213 NMC-000812. “Plan for Fortifying the Town of Hallifax, 1749.” By John Brewse. NMC-000814. “A plan of the Harbour of Chebucto and Town of Halifax.” 1750. From the Gentleman’s Magazine. NMC-021053. “A New and Accurate Map of the English Empire in North America Representing their rightful claim as confirm’d by Charters, and the formal surrender of their Indian Friends, Likewise the Encroachments of the French with the several Forts they have unjustly erected herein. By a society of Anti-Gallicona London, 1755.” By W. Herbert and R. Sayer. NMC-093319. “A plan of the Town & Harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia.” 1760. From the London Magazine. NMC-133349. “Plan of Quebec.” 1759. By E. Oakley & sold by J. Rocque.

Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, England GBR 1991 AR / 467 Merchants’ Lodge, No.151 [erased], Quebec, 1765– 1789, “A List of Members of Merchants Lodge, No. 1 held at Free Masons Hall in the City of Quebec, Quebec 9 November 1789.” GBR 1991 AR / 476 St Andrew’s Lodge, No. 152 [erased], Quebec, 1760– 1789, “List of the Members of St. Andrew’s Lodge No. 2 Quebec acting under a Warrant of Constitution dated at Quebec 20th October A.L. 5760 … Quebec 25th October 1789.” GBR 1991 AR / 520 St Patrick’s Lodge, No. 153 [erased], Quebec, 1777– 1789, “A List of the members of the St. Patrick’s Lodge No. 3 Quebec held at the Cork Arms. 20th October 1789.” GBR 1991 AR / 1015 “Registering fees paid you for the Barry Lodge in 34th Foot” 1788–1789 GBR 1991 AR / 1191 Merchants’ Lodge, No. 68 [erased], Quebec, Canada, 1812–1813, “A Return of the Officers and Members of Lodge No. 40 Quebec … to the 27th day of December 5812.”

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McCord Museum Archives, Montreal, Quebec CM67.bd91, III, 50 “Characters of different Plays, As Performed at the Theatre King Street. Saint John, New Brunswick, 1789.” M11432, C258-A / 4.2 Scrapbooks Collection. “Histoire Canadienne.” P305, M2300 Rules and Regulations of the Beaver Club, Instituted in 1785. Montreal: W. Gray, 1819.

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New Brunswick Museum, Archives & Research Library, Saint John, New Brunswick Oversize Collections. OS F4, 1. Saint John Exchange Coffee House. Subscription list, 1803–1804.

Nova Scotia Archives and Records Administration, Halifax, Nova Scotia MG 1 D.C. Harvey Papers. Volume 447. #199. “Nova Scotia – ‘Intellectual Awakening.’” MG 1 Volume 797 a-d (c)#1. Rev. John Seccombe Journal. MG 1 Volume 797 a-d (c)#6. Diary of Miss Seccombe, daughter of Rev. John Seccombe of Chester. MG 1 Volume 808a. Smethurst Family Papers. “Smethurst, Gamaliel Narrative of Escape from Indians,” 1761–1764. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #7-10. Court Martial and Acquittal of Captain Sir William Burnaby of the hms Milford, April 1780. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #19. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #25. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #36. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #63. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #73. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #85. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #91. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #109. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #111. MG 1 Volume 939. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #114–114b, 115. MG 1 Volume 940. Sir John Wentworth Papers. Bound Letter Book. MG 1 Volume 941. Sir John Wentworth Papers, #21. Photocopies of the Correspondence of Sir John Wentworth from the New Hampshire Historical Society. MG 20 Volume 230. North British Society. Treasurer’s Records. Articles of the North British Society, 1768. MG 20 Volume 230. North British Society. Treasurer’s Records. Proceedings of the North Britons Society. MG 20 Volume 231. North British Society. Treasurer’s Records. Revised “Rules Articles of the North British Society,” 1786. MG 20 Volume 231. North British Society. Treasurer’s Records. Proceedings of the North British Society. MG 20 Volume 231. North British Society. Treasurer’s Records. Revised “Rules Articles of the North British Society,” 1791.

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Bibliography 215 MG 20 Volume 2003. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #4. Royal Navy Lodge No. 18. 1787–1804. MG 20 Volume 2003. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #5. St John’s Lodge No. 2 (Halifax), 1780–1837. MG 20 Volume 2004. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. Royal Nova Scotia Regiment Lodge, No. 24, 1793–1820s. MG 20 Volume 2032. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #1. Letterbook, 1792–1795. MG 20 Volume 2006. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #3. Thistle Lodge, 82nd Regiment (Halifax), 1783–1784. MG 20 Volume 2006. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #7. Union Lodge No. 1 (Halifax), 1784–1834. MG 20 Volume 2006. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #6. Sion Lodge No. 3 (Halifax), 57th Regiment of Foot, 1786–1791. MG 20 Volume 2007. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #6. Lodge No. 293, 16th (Buckinghamshire) Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1791–1792. MG 20 Volume 2007. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #7. Lodge No. 169, 17th Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1784. MG 20 Volume 2007. Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, #8. Lodge No. 63, 20th Regiment of Foot (Halifax), 1784. MG 100 Volume 152. #28–28d, Halifax – Drama, George Mullane. MG 100 Volume 153. #11–11a, Halifax Founding. MG 100 Volume 155. #12, Halifax – Library: List of Books Proposed for the Public Library at Halifax, N.S. 1793. MG 100 Volume 157. #22, Halifax: School Lottery, 1781. MG 100 Volume 158. #5, Halifax: Societies: Charitable Irish. MG 100 Volume 160. #11–11e, Halifax: Wharves – Market Wharf, 1750–1879. MG 100 Volume 244. #10–10e, Watts, Isaac: Letters to Mather Byles, Sr, 1728–1742. MG 100 Volume 244. #32–32c, Wentworth, Governor Sir John, Document to Mr King, 1794. MG 100 Volume 263. #13, Letters of Nathaniel Smith and Family. RG 1 Volume 411. Records Relating to Halifax, 1756–1828.

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Wills, Gary. Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. New York: Doubleday, 1978. Wilson, Bruce G. ed. Manuscripts and Government Records in the United Kingdom and Ireland Relating to Canada. Ottawa: National Archives of Canada, 1992. Wilson, Kathleen. The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Routledge, 2003. – ed. A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire 1660–1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. – “Rowe’s Fair Penitent as Global History: Or, a Diversionary Voyage to New South Wales.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 41, no. 2 (2008): 231–51. Winans, Robert B. “The Growth of a Novel-reading Public in Late Eighteenthcentury America.” Early American Literature 9, no. 3 (1975): 267–75. Winks, Robin W. The Blacks in Canada, Second Edition. Montreal: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1997. – The Historiography of the British Empire-Commonwealth: Trends, Interpretations and Resources. Durham: Duke University Press, 1966. Wise, S.F. “Sermon Literature and Canadian Intellectual History.” In PreIndustrial Canada, 1760–1849: Readings in Canadian Social History, Volume 2, edited by Michael S. Cross and Gregory S. Kealey, 79–97. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982. Withers, Charles W.J. “William Cullen’s Agricultural Lectures and Writings and the Development of Agricultural Science in Eighteenth-century Scotland.” Agricultural History Review 37, no. 2 (1989): 144–56. Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969. Woodcock, George, ed. Colony and Confederation: Early Canadian Poets and Their Background. Vancouver: ubc Press, 1974. Worrall, David. Harlequin Empire: Race, Ethnicity and the Drama of the Popular Enlightenment. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2007. Wright, Louis B. The Cultural Life of the American Colonies 1607–1763. New York: Harper and Row, 1957. Wright, Richardson. Revels in Jamaica, 1682–1838: Plays and Players of a Century, Tumblers and Conjurors, Musical Refugees and Solitary Showmen, Dinners, Balls and Cockfights, Darky Mummers and Other Memories of High Times and Merry Hearts. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1937. Wroth, Lawrence C. The Colonial Printer. New York: Grolier, 1931, reprint. Charlottesville: Dominion Books, 1964. Würtelle, Frederick C. “Our Library.” Read Before the Society, 3 February 1888. Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. 29–73. http://www.morrin.org/transactions Wynn, Graeme. “A Region of Scattered Settlements and Bounded Possibilities: Northeastern America 1775–1800.” The Canadian Geographer/ le Géographe canadien 31, no. 4 (1987): 319–38.

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Bibliography 253 Young Brian, and John A. Dickinson. A Short History of Quebec: A SocioEconomic Perspective. Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1988. Zeller, Suzanne. Inventing Canada: Early Victorian Science and the Idea of a Transcontinental Nation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987. Ziff, Larzer. Writing in the New Nation: Prose, Print, and Politics in the Early United States. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. Zuck, David. “Dr. Nooth and His Apparatus: The Role of Carbon Dioxide in Medicine in the Late Eighteenth Century.” Journal of Anesthesia 50 (1978): 393–405.

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Index

Acadius, or Love in a Calm, 157–9 Addison, Joseph, 81, 94 Agnew, Jean-Christophe, 149, 159 Akenside, Mark, 108 Allmon, W.J., 49 Almanac de cabinet, 102 American Company of Comedians, 142, 145, 150 American Revolution, xvii, 12–14, 17–19, 27n13, 37, 40, 45, 57, 59–60, 62, 105, 122, 127, 140, 158, 174, 183, 185, 189 Ames Almanac, 102 Anburey, Thomas, 183 Anderson, Benedict, 15 Annual Register, 105, 107 arts, 11, 16, 33, 98, 103, 155, 157 Ashley-Cooper, Anthony (3rd Earl of Shaftesbury), 14, 149 Aspinall, Arthur, 47 A.V., 73–4 Bacon, Francis, 64 Baldwin, Henry, 80 Banks, Sir Joseph, 93 Bannister, Jerry, 17–18 Barker, Hannah, 47 Belknap, Rev. Dr Jeremy, 58, 89–90, 109, 117 Berger, Carl, 19–20

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Bickerstaff, Isaac. See Steele, Richard Birchtown (Nova Scotia), 53n34, 185 Black, Joseph, 93 Black colonists, xviii, 6, 30, 30n31, 46, 52–3, 185, 131, 184–5 Blair, Hugh, 58n Bloch, Marc, xvii Blowers, Samson, 109 Board of Trade and Plantations (London), 4–5 book sellers and stationers: James Ainslie, 60; Francis Boyd, 56, 56n47; Robert Fletcher, 25, 29n26, 41n68, 51n22, 56, 56n46, 78, 102, 103, 105, 144n22; Richard Kidston, 51, 56, 56n45; James Rivington, 56, 56n48, 174 Boston, xviii, 25, 27, 29, 46, 47, 5759, 89, 92, 102, 109, 116, 129, 167, 174, 179n59 Brehm, Elizabeth, 180 Breynton, Rev. Dr, 6n15 British Army. See regiments of the British Army A British Commis, 122–3 Britishness, 16–17, 44, 65, 84, 152, 157, 162 Brooke, Frances, 52, 54; The History of Emily Montague, 54 Brooke, Rev. John, 52

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256 Brown, Rev. Dr Andrew, 49, 58, 59, 109, 117 Brown, Richard, 173 Brymer, Alex, 49 Bulloch, Stephen, 132 Burke, William, 16 Bushman, Richard L., 170 Byles Jr, Rev. Dr Mather, 58, 117 Cairns, Alex, 179 Caldwell, Colonel Henry, 42–4 Careless, 85 Carleton, Sir Guy, 71, 116 Castigator Falsi, 86 Castle of St Louis, 38 Censor, 67–8, 69, 83–4 Centilivre, Susannah, The Wonder (A Woman Keeps a Secret), 149 de Cervantes, Miguel, 43 Chartier, Robert, 15 children. See colonial print community Chipman, Ward, 58, 116 Churchill, Charles, xiii–xiv Cibber, Colley, The Provoked Wife, 146–7 A Citizen, 97, 175 Civis, 68 Civis Bonus Usque ad Mortem, 76–7 Civis Canadiensis, 76–7 Clark, Dr Duncan, 49, 130–1 Clark, James, 134 Clark, Joseph, 119 Clark, Peter, 115 Clarke, Edward, 173 Cochran, Rev. William, 33, 36 coffeehouses, xiii, xvi, xx, 3, 10, 11, 14, 20, 32, 49, 53, 71, 81, 110, 114, 132, 138, 164–86, 190; Brehm’s Coffee House (Halifax), 180; British Coffee House (Halifax), 183; British Coffee

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Index House (Quebec), 177–80; Don Saltero’s Coffee House (London), 176–7, 177n51; Exchange Coffee House (Halifax), 179; Exchange Coffee House (St John, nb), 174, 176, 181; Frank’s Tavern and Coffee House (Quebec), 180, 186; Fury’s Coffee-Room (Halifax), 179; General’s Wolfe’s, 179; Jerusalem Coffee House (Halifax), 179; London Coffee House (Quebec), 179; Merchant’s (or Ferguson’s) Coffee House (Quebec), 136, 164, 169, 173, 174, 175, 179, 180, 182, 184; Mermaid Coffee House (Halifax), 179; New England Coffee House (London), 173, 176; New-York, New-England, Nova Scotia, Quebec, &c. Coffee-House (London), 173; New-York, NewEngland, Rhode Island and Nova Scotia Coffee-House (London), 173; (O’Brien’s) Golden Ball, 184; Piggot’s Coffee House, 167n9; (Willis’ or “Great”) Pontac (Halifax), 141, 151, 175, 178, 180, 183; Prince Edward Hotel (Halifax), 181; Quebec (Cairn’s) Coffee House (Quebec), 179; Simpson’s Coffee House (Quebec), 124; Star and Garter (London), 120; Sutherland’s Coffee House (Halifax), 53, 180, 183; Taylor’s Coffee House (Halifax), 180; Union Coffee House (Quebec), 179, 181–2 Coffin, Thomas Aston, 57–8, 116–17 Coleman, George, The Spanish Barber, 162 colonial print community, xiii, xiv, xv, xviii, xx, 9–10, 13, 47, 65, 84, 88,

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Index 257

90, 99, 110, 114, 119, 121, 131, 138, 140, 141, 158, 162, 166, 189–90; children, 50–1, 81, 96; women, 37, 50-51, 54, 55, 75, 86, 116–17, 135, 136, 180, 186 Columella, 99 A Commis, 79–80, 87–8 Congreve, William, 56 Cornwallis, Governor Edward, 4, 24n4 A Court Cringer, 76 Cousin, Marguerite, 166n6 Cranfield, C.A., 37, 47 Cullen, William, 93, 98, 121 Cumberland, Richard, 62; The WestIndian, 148, 154 Curren, Samuel, 176 Davidson, Arthur, 61 Davies, Thomas, 118 Defoe, Daniel, Robinson Crusoe, 56 Demosthenes, 68 Dictionnaire Encyclopedie, 63 Die Welt und die Neuschottlaendische Correspondenz [The World and the Nova Scotia Correspondent], 34 Doll Tearsheet, 147 Dorchester, Lord. See Carleton, Sir Guy drama. See theatre Dutton, John, 52 Dyott, Lieutenant William, 49, 116, 143, 169, 187 Edinburgh (Scotland), 58n58, 60, 98, 108, 109, 121, 130, 135 Elias, Norbert, 13–14 Ellis, Aytoun, 181 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 60 Enlightenment, xv, xvii, xix, 4, 5, 12, 24, 45, 63, 88, 99, 103, 132, 149; Enlightenments, xv, 189; English Enlightenment, 92; French

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Enlightenment, xv, 63; Scottish Enlightenment, 62, 65, 92, 98, 121 Farquhar, George, The Beaux Stratagem, 154; The Recruiting Officer, 149 Ferguson, Adam, 63 Ferguson, Thomas, 174, 180, 182, 184 Fêtes Villageoises, Les, 160 Fielding, Henry, 64 Finlay, Hugh, 27n13 First Nations, xviii, 3, 52, 53, 102, 108, 184, 185; Algonquin, 184; Mi’kmaq, 40, 184; Montagnais, 102 The Flight, 86 Foote, Samuel, Mayor of Garratt, 69 Frank, John, 180, 186 Franklin, Benjamin, 64, 93, 98, 154, 188n3; Book Company, 64 Fraser, Hugh, 119 Fraser, John, 52 Freemasonry, 113, 115, 118, 119, 120, 121, 127, 132–8, 169; Hiram’s Lodge No. 8 (Sheet Harbour), 115n7; Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, xxi, 134n87; Grand Lodge of Quebec, 137; Lodge No. 3 in the 57th Regiment (Halifax), 134; Lodge No. 52 in 37th Regiment (Halifax), 134; Merchant’s Lodge (Quebec), 133, 136; St Andrew’s Lodge (Quebec), 119, 133, 136; St Patrick’s Lodge (Quebec), 119, 133, 136; Sion Lodge No. 3 (Halifax), 134n86 free press. See liberty of the press French-Indian War. See Seven Years’ War A Friend, 77–8, 97, 100 A Friend to Loyalty and Truth, 87

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258

Index

Fury, William, 179 Galarneau, Claude, 28–9 Gallichan, Gilles, 28–9 Garrick, David, 153 Garrison Theatre, 141, 148, 150, 151 Gatignon-dit-Duchesne, 166n6 Geddes, Charles, 49 Gentleman’s Magazine, 108 George III, 37–9 George, William, 182 Glenny, James, 119 Goldsmith, Oliver, 64 gossip, xviii, 3, 20, 50, 73–5, 91, 95, 117, 171 Gould, Katherine, 51 Grant, Alexander, 167 Grant, Cuthbert, 49 Greaves, George, 72–3 Greenblatt, Stephen, 13 Habermas, Jürgen, 10–11, 69n10 Hadfield, Joseph, 182 Haldimand, Governor Frederick, 61–2 Halifax Gazette, xvi, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 37, 40, 60, 70, 74, 76, 84–7, 90–1, 92–3, 94–5, 102, 135, 173, 174, 179, 185 Halifax Journal, 39, 119, 147 Halliburton, Dr John, 130–1 Harland-Jacobs, Jessica, 132 Henry, Rev. Bro. George, 137–8 Herschel, William, 93 Hévé, Pierre, 166 Hippisley, John, Connaught Wife, 149 Hissing Hot, 86 Hoadly, Dr Benjamin, The Suspicious Husband, 151 Home, Henry, 64, 98, 121 Home, John: Douglas, 139; Jane Shore, 139, 153 Howard, Lady Maria (Dorchester), 117

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Hubert, A.B., 137 Hume, David, 62, 121 Hunter, William, 98 illiteracy. See literacy Imperial and Biographical Magazine, 106 Inchbald, Elizabeth, I’ll Tell You What, 153 Indian Kalendar, 102 Indigenous Peoples. See First Nations Inglis, Rev. Dr Charles, 49 Irwin, George, 42–3 Jacob, Margaret, 132 Jautard, Valentin, xvi Jerry Sneak, 69 Jeunes Messieurs Canadiens, Les, 161 Jobb, Dean, 40 Jones, John, 42–3, 49, 182 Jones, Samuel, 174n40 Johnson, Samuel, 55 Johnstone, Catherine, 51 J.S., 68 Juncken, Henry (Johann Heinrich), 30, 49, 54, 117, 164–5, 169, 173, 174, 182, 187 Junius, 36, 68, 69 Kesterton, W.H., xvi King, Matthias, 75 King’s Academy, Windsor, 92, 143 King’s Printer, 25, 32, 37, 41, 70 Lahontan, 93 Lambert, John, 181–2 Lamonde, Yves, 185 Legge, Francis Governor, 17 Lemire, Maurice, 185 Lepidus, 36 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, The Disbanded Officer, or the Baroness of Bruchsal, 153

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Index 259

libel, 24n2, 41–4 Libertas, 76 liberty of the press, xvi–xviii, 23, 24, 42–5, 76, 84–5, 90, 101, 134, 157, 188–90 libraries: personal libraries, 59, 60; Quebec Library, 49, 60–5, 80; subscription libraries, 64–5 Licensing Act (1737), 144n24 Lister, Peter, 61 literacy, xiii, xviii, xix, 3, 4, 9, 10, 15, 19, 23, 28, 29, 45, 47, 50, 52, 53, 54, 57, 65, 66, 69, 71, 72, 74, 80, 81, 83–4, 90, 94, 102, 114, 123, 130, 133, 138, 155, 158, 178, 182, 186, 191 Livingston, John, 134 Livius, Peter, 117 Locke, John, 56, 64 Lockridge, Kenneth, 13 London (England), xvii, xviii, 4, 23, 32, 41n70, 43, 47, 51n22, 56n, 87, 98, 118, 120, 130, 139–40, 144, 152–5, 159, 164, 173–5, 177–9, 181 Longmore, Dr George, 118 Loughran, Trish, 15 Lower, A.R.M., 12–13 Loyalists, 12, 13, 17, 18, 49, 58, 70, 83, 105, 116, 117, 139–40, 158, 164, 176, 185, 189, 190 Mabane, Adam, 117 Macaulay, Catherine, 56 Mahony, John, 119 Mandeville, Bernard, 64 Marquis, Charles, 166n6 Marshall, P.J., 17 Masons. See Freemasonry McGill, James, 49 McLeod, John, 119 Melton, James Van Horn, 132

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Mergerum, John, 74 Meriton, Henry, 183 Mesplet, Fleury, xvi, 34 Messier, Charles, 95n29 M.F., 145 Michelon, Adrien, 166n6 Middleton, Dr Peter, 133–4 Miller, Lieutenant Francis, 53 Milton, John, 35, 56 Molière: The Hypocrite, 142; Tartuffe, 160 Momus, 68 Montesquieu, 64 Montmollin, Rev. David-François de, 137 Montreal, xvi, 9, 31, 34, 48, 49, 61, 81, 92, 121, 124n50, 160n86, 161, 189, 190 moral philosophy, 62, 64, 94, 125 Mortimer, Thomas, British Plutarch, 55 Morton, Banks, 119 Munter, Robert, 47 Murphy, Arthur, The Citizen, 148, 151, 154 Murray, Governor James, 54, 71 natural philosophy, 10, 101, 102, 107, 177, 180, 191 navy. See Royal Navy Neatby, Hilda, 61 Neem, Johann, 114 Der Neuschottländische Calendar, 102 New York, xviii, 27, 32, 47, 56, 59, 64, 133, 136, 139, 140, 173, 174, 179 Nolan, Pierre, 166n6 Nooth, Dr John Mervin, 98, 117 Nova-Scotia Calendar, or An Almanack, 93, 101 Nova-Scotia Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser (Halifax), 28, 94, 145

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260

Index

Nova-Scotia Gazette (Halifax), 144–7 Nova-Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle (Halifax), 34, 38, 39, 46, 60, 73, 75, 78, 80, 82, 83, 86–7, 105,126, 135, 148, 151, 159 Nova-Scotia Magazine (Halifax), 31, 33, 50, 51, 99, 105, 106, 107, 108, 188 Observator, 147–8 Oldmixion, John, 16 Old Subscriber, 68 Parr, Lieutenant-Governor John, 49, 126 A Patron of Eloquence, 68 Penn, William, 100 Perkins, Simeon, 183 Peters, Joseph, 49, 50, 89–90, 109 Philadelphia, xviii, 25, 27, 29, 30n31, 47, 64n93, 86, 95n31, 148, 164n2, 179n63 Philadelphia Evening News, 27n12 Piggot, Captain William, 167n9 plays. See theatre Pocock, John, 18–19 Pope, Alexander, 55, 56 presses. See printing press Prince Edward Augustus, 39, 49 Prince William Henry, 39, 118n23, 120 printers: John Anderson, 32; John Bushell, 25, 27, 29, 29n26 37, 40, 85, 94–5; William Brown, 25, 29, 29n26, 30, 40, 57, 91n8, 96, 102, 103, 121, 149; Robert Fletcher, 25, 29n26, 41n68, 51n22, 56, 56n46, 56n47, 78, 102, 103, 105, 144n22; Thomas Gilmore, 25, 29, 29n26; 40, 57, 96, 102; Bartholomew Green Jr, 25, 29; Anthony Henry, xvi, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31n38, 33, 34,

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40, 41, 55, 56n46, 74, 75, 82, 85, 87, 93, 94–5, 97–8, 102, 103, 151; John Howe, 25, 29n26, 33, 102, 106, 134; Herbert Jefferie, 24; William Minns, 25, 29n26, 33; William Moore, 17, 23–5, 27–35, 38, 42, 43, 44, 50, 55, 67, 69, 85– 7, 92, 94, 96, 102, 103, 113, 114, 120, 125–6, 128, 129n70, 135– 7, 143n18, 149, 150–3, 156, 162, 164, 165n5, 173–5, 182, 188; John Neilson, 25, 29, 102–3; Samuel Neilson, 11, 16, 25, 29–31, 33, 35, 36, 60, 91n8, 94, 102–3, 125–6; Isaiah Thomas, 27n12, 30, 30n33; William Vondenvelden, 25, 29n26 printing press, xv, xx, 9, 13, 23, 24, 27n12, 54, 55, 67, 70, 103, 125, 189–90 The Private, 68 prologues, 39, 81, 140–1, 144, 156– 8, 162 Pro Bono Publico, 68, 187 Publicola, 68, 187 Quebec Act (1774), 16, 186n103 Quebec Almanac, 11, 16, 91, 102–3 Quebec Gazette, 11, 25, 29–35, 37, 40– 2, 48–52, 55, 57, 60–2, 70, 71, 77, 80, 81, 84, 91, 96, 97, 100n52, 102, 124, 143, 149, 160, 161, 167, 186 Quebec Herald, 23, 27, 30–2, 34, 36, 38, 42–4, 55, 57, 60, 62, 67, 69, 73, 76, 77, 79-80, 83, 85, 87–8, 92, 94, 96, 99, 100, 102, 113, 120, 123, 126, 135–7, 143n18, 149, 153, 156, 162, 165n5, 172, 174, 175, 184, 188 Quebec Library. See libraries Quebec Magazine, 33, 35, 36, 48, 78, 79n36, 94, 100, 105, 107

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Index 261

Rambler, 55, 86 Raynal, Abbé, 94 Reid, John, 17–18 regiments of the British Army, xiv, 9, 29, 51, 52, 53, 129, 133, 141, 148, 150, 151, 183, 184; Black Carolina Corps, 53; 29th Regiment of Foot, 52; 30th Regiment of Foot, 118; 53rd Regiment of Foot, 136, 184; 78th Regiment of Foot, 52 religion, 17, 62, 63, 69, 79, 100, 129; Protestant faiths, 4, 6, 17, 33, 36, 49, 52, 58, 100, 107n74, 109, 132, 137; Roman Catholicism, 4n, 6, 7n23, 17, 32, 49, 52, 61, 63, 102, 161–2; Séminaire deQuebec, 32, 63 religious orders, 6, 7n23; Augustines Hospitalières de Hôtel Dieu, 7, 32; Jésuites, 7, 93, 160n83; Récollects, 7; Sulpiciens, 7; Ursulines, 7, 32, 160n83 Rich, John (A Gentleman of Cambridge), The Spirit of Contradiction, 149 Riordan, Liam, 17–18 Robbie, Mary, 117 Robertson, Dr William, 59, 59n64, 94, 121 Ross, George, 119 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 64; Lettre à D’Alembert, 60 Royal American Magazine, 106, 107 Royal Gazette (Halifax), 53 Royal Gazette (Kingston), 136 Royal Navy, xiv, 9, 39, 47, 51, 53, 133, 148, 151, 183, 184 Ruddel, David-Thierry, 185 St John (New Brunswick), 174, 179n59 Saint-Vallier, Bishop Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de, 160

26742_Eamon_montage.indd 261

Salter, Benjamin, 49 S.B., 73 S.W., 145–7 Schlesinger, Arthur, 114 schools and schoolmasters, 7, 32, 49, 51–3, 56, 90, 92, 129, 164, 182 science, xvii, xix, 11, 16, 33, 36, 92, 94, 95, 97–9, 102, 103, 105, 108, 121, 125, 126, 141, 155, 177, 191 Sedition Acts, 120 Seven Years’ War, 25, 90 Sewell, Jonathan, 116n9 Shakespeare, William, 67, 81, 147, 153, 179n58; Hamlet, 68n1; Henry IV, 147; The Merchant of Venice, 148 Shatford, Daniel, 90n4 Shelburne (Nova Scotia), 136, 179n63, 185 Shields, David, 13–14 Siddons, Sarah, 139, 147 Smellie, William, 93 Smith, Adam, 63, 93, 121 Smith, Janet, 59 Smith, William, 59, 99, 139–40, 153 Smollett, Tobias, 64; History, 56; The Expedition of Henry Clinker, 172 sociability, xiii, xviii, xix, 10, 11, 13, 14, 59, 65, 66, 69, 73, 78–83, 88, 90, 100, 110, 113, 115–16, 119, 121, 131, 132, 137, 138, 140, 143, 144, 150, 162, 165–7, 171, 178– 80, 185–6, 189–90 societies, xiii, xix, xx, 11, 14, 20, 79, 110, 114, 115, 117, 118–24, 127, 131, 132, 138, 140, 186, 190; Amicable (Fire) Society (Quebec), 123–4; Baron’s Society (Quebec), 118; Charitable Irish Society (Halifax), 115n, 127, 130, 131, 180; Constitution Club (Quebec), 122, 186; Je ne scai quoi Club (London), 120; Literary and

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262

Index

Historical Society of Quebec, 64; Loyal Friendly Society of the Blue and Orange (Halifax), 118; Marine Humane Society (Halifax), 130, 131; Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston), xxi, 89, 109, 117; Merchant’s Society (Quebec), 118; Minerva Free Debating Society (Quebec), 121–2; Montreal Fire Club, 124n50; North British Society (Halifax), 56n45, 127-128, 130–1, 180; Nova Scotia Agri­ culture Society, 107, 125–7, 130; Order of the Gateau (Quebec), 117; Quebec Agriculture Society, 113, 125–7; Quebec Benevolent Society, 113, 127–8, 130, 165; Royal Humane Society (London), 130; Royal Society (London), 98, 118; Select Society (Edinburgh), 121; Select Society (Montreal), 121; Union Fire Club (Halifax), 123; Veterans of 1775–76 (Quebec), 118, 169; Yorkshire Club (Halifax), 118 South, William Howard, 74 Spark, Rev. Alexander, 100, 107, 137 Spectator, 55, 56, 73, 74, 91, 94 Spotswood, Rev. John, History of the Church and State of Scotland, 56 Stamp Act, xvi, xvii, 40, 102 Steele, Ian K., 3, 19 Steele, Richard, 16, 172n32 Sterne, Laurence, 64; Tristram Shandy, 55 Stevens, George Alexander, xiv; A Lecture on Heads, 81, 152, 155–6, 175 Stiles, Rev., 167 Stone, Lawrence, 10n32 subscriptions, 46, 48–51, 61, 62, 65, 106, 150, 181–2; club and society, 110, 115, 123, 186; difficulty

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in paying, 31–2, 115, 123; newspaper, xv, xvii, 32, 33, 48–51, 89 Suckling, George, 178n57 Tanswell, James, 31n37 Tatler, 56, 91, 172, 172n32 Taylor, Elizabeth, 180 Temperatus, 83 theatre, xiii, xix, xx, 3, 14, 20, 39, 53, 60, 87, 110, 114, 115, 136, 138, 139–63, 165, 175, 177, 183, 184, 185, 190 theatres: Covent Garden (London), 139, 153; Drury Lane (London), 139; Hay-Market (London), 153; Grand Theatre (Halifax), 143; Halifax Theatre, 39; New Grand Theatre (Halifax), 148; Mr. Menut’s Theatre (Quebec), 153; Patagonian Theatre (Quebec), 141; Thespian Theatre (Quebec), 141 Thompson, Sergeant James, 52, 117 Three Rivers (Quebec), 87 Tillotson, John, 100 Tong, John, 74 Tonge, Captain, 184 To Shoot at Folly, 86 town talk. See gossip Towsey, Mark, 62 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 4 Treaty of Paris (1763), 7, 12n42 Trois-Rivières (Quebec). See Three Rivers Trudel, Marcel, 186n104 United Empire Loyalist. See Loyalists Upton, Leslie, 59n64 useful knowledge, xix, 12, 23, 24, 50, 70, 77, 78, 88, 91, 92, 95, 96, 97, 101, 105, 106, 107, 110, 126, 127, 177, 178, 189 Verax, 19

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Verrette, Michel, 4n4 Voltaire, 63, 64, 186n104 Walter, John, 42–3 War of Independence. See American Revolution Wasmus, Julius Friedrich, 184 Weekly Chronicle (Halifax), 142–3 Weeks, Rev. Bro. Joshua, 132–3, 137 Weld, Isaac, 116 Wentworth, Governor Sir John, 58, 109, 116n9 Wheatley, Phyllis, 46, 53 Wilkes, John, xii, 41 Will Wimble, 79–80

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Index 263 Williams, Raymond, 9n31 Williams, William, 181 Willis, John, 180 Wilson, Kathleen, 152 Windsor (Nova Scotia), 92, 143 Winslow, Edward, 58, 116n9 Wolfe, General James, 7, 9n27 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 79 women. See colonial print community The World (London), 23, 43 Wright, Charles, 72 Wright, Hannah, 72 Y.Z., 68, 84–5

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26742_Eamon_montage.indd 264

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