A Letter by Lord William Owen

The following artice was published January 18, 2002 in the Saint Croix Courier Newspaper and is placed here with there permission. Original article written by James Bird. Transcribed for us by Glenna Parker. Added 15/02/2002

William Owen, Lord of Campobello

By James Bird

Today I received a letter from Lord William Campbell and the news is good, very good, as opposed to all the bad news I had received lately.

After sending another letter last week to the Lords of the Admiralty, the third time in the last six months that I had written seeking their assistance, there has been no response from these esteemed gentlemen, and I fret none will be forthcoming. The small pension awarded for my service to crown and country is not enough for a gentleman to live a decent life. After all I gave my right arm, literally, during the Battle of Pondicherry, India, in 1760. Surely that is worth more than the tiny amount I received.

After inquiring of Lord William whom I had served with while in India for five years, as to his future plans, he has confided that he was going to be named governor of a colony not far from Britain. And if I chose, I could enter his service at the rank of Commander. This was the best news I had received in many months, and quickly penned a response accepting his generous offer.

After writing to Lord William I left London for my family home in Wales. Our family’s estate there was a modest one, certainly not grand enough to keep all of my parents’ sons, but one such that my eldest brother was able to be named High Sheriff of Montgomery Shire. As the fourth son, I was expected to find my own way in this world, and I had. I joined the navy, serving diligently for twenty years and now I was to embark on another venture.

I shared my news while visiting with family members for a week, then it was time for my departure. I gathered my possessions, put my affairs, small as they might be, in order and left for London. After these many months on land I, Lieutenant William Owen, of His Majesty’s Navy, would soon be back at sea.

My promotion to captain came in the summer of 1766, and I was also named secretary to newly appointed Governor Lord William Campbell. We left for Halifax later that fall.

The day of our arrival was cold and damp. Standing on deck, bundled up for protection against the wind as our ship-dropped anchor, we scanned the harbour. Several other ships were anchored in the harbour, crews busily loading and unloading goods of all kinds. The town was bustling with both civilian and military inhabitants. Lord Campbell said the present population of the town was around six thousand souls, the majority being military personnel. We went ashore and were met by some of the important locals and later by military officers.

Over the next few days we settled in our quarters and due to the coming of winter it was decided that I would conduct our business in the town, waiting til spring before touring other regions of the colony. Winter passed quickly and in the summer of 1767 I went about my business travelling to the Shubenacadie Lakes region mapping and surveying the area.

September of 1767 brought me an added bonus. Lord Campbell bestowed the position of Principal Proprietary of the Great Outer Island of Passamaquoddy upon me. As the island was actually larger than the allowed land grant, about twelve thousand acres, it was “officially” shared between my three young nephews and me. It was at this time that I left Lord William’s service and decided to return home. I explored along the New England coast first, then journeyed to England without stopping to see my island.

The following year after spending time in France and the Netherlands I returned to England, minus my eye which I lost during a brawl on the Continent. I spent the next year in England hoping for something better then acres of rock and forest in Canada. If only I could have had an opportunity to travel again to India, I could have earned enough to live like a grand lord when I returned home. But nothing presented itself and it seemed that I was destined to return to Canada.

By now it was the summer of 1769 and I had decided to return to Nova Scotia, but not before I formulated a plan.

England was changing from a rural, agrarian nation to an urban, industrialized one. As a result of the industrial revolution people were moving to the burgeoning towns and cities searching for jobs in the many factories that were being built. Late in August, in Warrington, one such community, halfway between Liverpool and Manchester, I met with my brother and several acquaintances. As my brother was the rector to this community and I had no real home of my won, it seemed as good a place as any to use as my base. Meeting at one of the several coffee houses that had recently sprung up there we arrived at a plan to settle, cultivate and generally improve the island.

We agreed to divide the property into sixteen shares. My brother and several of our friends were to possess thirteen shares and the remaining three would belong to me. Thirteen shares were to carry the expenses of our plan and as the proprietor of the land, I was not to occur any. I was also to have 3/16 of the net profit from our venture. The next step of our plan was to acquire a vessel, which we did, but not until February of 1770. Our ship, a brig, was christened Snow Owen. Now all that was needed were settlers.

After advertising in the Liverpool Advertiser in March 1770 we acquired thirty-eight settlers, the vast majority of them from Lancashire. Our settlers included masons, bricklayers, gardeners, labourers and other tradesmen, all necessary for a settlement to grow and prosper.

Often as a result of the high price of a ticket to the new world, one which ordinary people could not afford, individuals became indentured. That is, in return for passage to the new world, people signed an agreement or contract which bound them to a land or ship owner for a period of time varying anywhere from two to seven years. The land owner was to provide the indentured person with food, shelter and clothes. At the end of the allotted time period, the individuals would be given grants of land and become free individuals.

The voyage was a rough one lasting forty-five days. We arrived in Halifax on May 21, 1770. The town had suffered hard times since the end of the Seven Years War and the fall of Quebec. Its population had declined from six thousand to about two thousand and the subsidy from the British government had dropped from fifty thousand to about five thousand pounds. In spite of this there were many signs that this was a British town. Soldiers still paraded the streets in the king’s uniforms, the churches looked much like the ones at home, except they were made of wood and not stone, and taverns were located on every corner. This was very reassuring to our settlers, since none had ever set foot outside of England. We remained here until the end of the month and before leaving Halifax I was appointed magistrate for Sunbury County while our captain, Plato Denny was named a justice of the peace. We left Halifax and finally on June 3, 1770, anchored in Harbour de L’Outre, a northeast cove on the island.

We came ashore and set out to build our settlement. The first thing I did was to name the island Campo Bello, partly for Lord Campbell and partly for the beauty of the land.

I was soon to discover we were not the only inhabitants of the island. Three families had moved here from New England during the time I spent in England. They were industrious and honest people, who assisted us with food and shelter. I therefore decided that they could continue to live rent free on the island. In return they agreed to put themselves under my jurisdiction.

At once we set about constructing two large buildings, one to house our settlers and one to store provisions. While several men worked on the buildings, others began clearing land and planted grain, potatoes and turnips. Still, others fished for haddock, pollock and cod. Over the summer and autumn our settlement progressed and in fact more individuals arrived from New England. In 1771 our population reached approximately seventy individuals, divided evenly between Englishmen and New Englanders.

Another milestone in my life occurred in early 1771, I became a father. For the past several years I was involved with my housekeeper, Sarah Haslem. She bore me a son, Edward William Campbell Owen. She was later to bare a second son, William Fitzwilliam Owen, in 1774, in England.

We had only lived on Campo Bello for a short period of time, when news from Europe reached us that war was on the horizon. Being first and foremost an officer of the Royal Navy, I had not given up my commission, I made plans to return to England. Sarah, Edward and I left for England in June of 1771, and arrived safely there at the end of the summer of 1771.

In the mean time on Campo Bello Island, events beyond my control were taking place. Having left Captain Plato in charge of the island I had assumed all would go well until my eventual return. This was not the case. The vast majority of our English settlers were men who had left their wives and children at home in Lancashire. Several of our settlers were nearing the end of their indentured period, and were anxious to return to their families. For almost a year these men badgered Captain Plato. Finally, he unwisely decided to sail with them for England. Aboard the Snow Owen they set out from Campo Bello in the fall of 1772. They were never heard from again as the ship and its passengers were lost at sea.

With the loss of the Snow Owen and all on board, the settlement faced additional difficulties. With no one in command on the island, many of the remaining settlers now started to leave the island for the mainland. In 1775, meeting in England, the owners voted to dissolve the company. This was a difficult decision since they had invested about sixteen thousand pounds in the venture. However, there was little alternative as the settlement now is disarray, showed no signs of making a profit. In dissolving the company, the other shareholders returned sole possession of the island to Captain Owen and his heirs. Owen, now in India, was hardly aware of all that had taken place.

In 1778, William Owen died in Madras, India, never seeing Campo Bello Island again.

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