St. David Parish - 1803

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Report of Donald MacDonald to Edward Winslow, 1803
- transcribed in 'An International Community on the St. Croix' by Harold A. Davis, p. 88

Parish of St. David

Men 49 - Women 46 - Children 186 - Total 286.
There are 2 Saw Mills in this parish which cutl yearly about 200,000 feet of boards. Some masts for the Government were furnished here during the war (with France). The land in this Parish is of excellent quality, the Settlers the most independent Farmers of any in the county. The land averages 20 Bushels of wheat, 25 Indian Corn (per acre).

Note some of the implications -

1. It is possible, even probable that some of the British ships in the Battle of the Nile (1799) and even at Trafalgar (1805) carried masts that came from St. David Parish.

2. The two saw mills would have been the Moore's at Moores Mills, and the 2nd one on Gallop Stream. The 'Memorial to Moores, Hitchings and Livingstone' says that Gallop Stream mill near Oak Bay had been bought by Robert Moore (who died in 1804). Uncertain of this.

3. Population density was still low - only 286, with probably more than half living in the lots around Oak Bay.