1798 in Canada

Events from the year 1798 in Canada.

Incumbents

 * Monarch: George III

Federal government

 * Parliament of Lower Canada: 2nd
 * Parliament of Upper Canada: 2nd

Governors

 * Governor of the Canadas: Robert Prescott
 * Governor of New Brunswick: Thomas Carleton
 * Governor of Nova Scotia: John Wentworth
 * Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland: John Elliot
 * Governor of St. John's Island: Edmund Fanning
 * Governor of Upper Canada: John Graves Simcoe

Events

 * David Thompson travels to Mandan villages and charts headwaters of Mississippi River.
 * A new fur trading company is formed to compete with the North West Company. Confusingly called the New North West Company, it is nicknamed the XY Company later on.
 * Indian chiefs, in Canada, claim from Vermont an equivalent of the greater part of Addison, Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties. They get their expenses to-and-fro.

Births

 * February 19 – Allan MacNab, businessman, soldier, lawyer and politician (died 1862)
 * April 3 – Louis Lacoste, politician (died 1878)
 * April 20 – William Edmond Logan, geologist (died 1875)
 * April 26, – Charles-François Baillargeon, Archbishops of Quebec (died 1870)

Deaths

 * May 10 – George Vancouver, naval officer, explorer (b.1757)
 * December 25 – Elias Hardy, lawyer and office-holder (b.1744)

Full date unknown

 * Esteban José Martínez Fernández y Martínez de la Sierra, naval officer (b.1742)

Historical documents
Commissioners fulfilling treaty between U.S.A. and Great Britain decide in favour of river claimed by G.B. as Maine-New Brunswick border

Rundown of treaties between European powers since 1648 Treaty of Westphalia provides background to current affairs and "vicissitudes of the year"

Lower Canada
"Let us exhibit the great fundamental of Masonry, as well as of all civil Society, our Love of Order" - sermon to Montreal Masons rejects revolution

Gov. Prescott gives Executive Council directions for disposal of "waste lands," including preference for associated grant applicants seeking townships

Convicted of burglary in Court of King's Bench (Criminal), Black woman named Elizabeth Baker is sentenced to death

Indigenous person is "convicted of an assault with intent to murder, and sentenced to six months imprisonment"

For assaulting wife with "intent to murder," man gets £25 fine, pillory, and 6 months in prison plus "security for his good behaviour for 2 Years"

Book-lending service will send books to subscribers anywhere in L.C., and they may read latest newspapers in "well warmed room" at library

First French settlers on St. Lawrence River were restricted by Intendant Picard to one can of spruce beer a day, causing them to say "Can-a-day!"

Etching: Canadian calash

Painting: sleighs on ice in winter view of St. Lawrence River at Quebec City

Upper Canada
Noting his loyalty to British, Joseph Brant says their aim for ownership control of all Indigenous land seems "to put aside the old covenant chain"

Black man Henry Lewis writes one-time enslaver that he wants to purchase his freedom in £16 annual payments, and begs his pardon 10,000 times

Adolphustown Quaker meeting reports people try "to keep[...]in plainness of Speech behavior and apparel" and avoid "unnessary [sic] use" of liquor

Nova Scotia
"True British Spirit [of] the Parent country operates with resistless energy" in its dominions, causing Haligonians to raise £4,000+ for war effort

Courteous visit by U.S. Navy ships to Halifax signals "a return of harmony and reciprocal friendship"

Rev. John Wiswall says war makes farming glebe difficult because of high price of labour (with so many men away) and other things (except grain)

Halifax emergency caused by "immense quantities of Snow [in] few days" cutting off food supplies is ended by citizen and army efforts

Resident aliens ("not being natural born Subjects[...]or Denizens, nor Persons duly Naturalized") are required to get special permit from government

"Hurricane" strikes Halifax, driving ships on shore, dragging away wharves with ships moored to them, and destroying stores containing merchanise

Map: Halifax harbour, including approaches, Bedford Basin, and nearby communities (Note: north is at bottom of page)

Having built house, storehouse, shipyard and 5 wharves on Sissiboo River, petitioner requests land for grist and sawmill

Where 1792 freshet shifted Truro channel, 50 acres of marshland created could be secured "with Proper Materials," to public's and petitioner's benefit

Castaways on Sable Island survive 3 winter months in hut with chimney that they cover and line with cloth from wreck, living on ship provisions

Lady Wentworth's departure leaves N.S. deprived of her high accomplishments and her mind "informed for instructive and pleasing conversation"

Young Dartmouth man, having "discovered an attachment to Miss Russel," enters her family home, and when stopped, kills her with butcher knife

At Theatre Royal "will be Performed, A celebrated Comedy never performed here, called The Tempest, or the Inchanted Island"

Three turkey hens, one "of a very remarkable Large Size," are stolen in daylight from Prince Edward's Halifax quarters; 5 guinea reward

New Brunswick
Government extends suspension of controls on U.S. imports to allow in grains, flour etc. because of "public emergency and to prevent distress"

No one in Saint John allowed to board ships from places with "Yellow Fever, Putrid Billious Fever" etc., with master paying £50 for each infraction

Saint John River flooding caused by ice breakup; 20+ French families have evacuated their homes above Fredericton; cattle, hay etc. are swept away

Fredericton church congregation petitions for "a Glebe and other publick grounds" such as land granted to two men but abandoned

For sale: hull of ship lying on Sandy Island; has four 9-pounders, much merchandise and 40 tons of iron (ship is bolted where others have trunnels)

Elsewhere
"In the House of Commons April 3, Mr. Wilberforce moved for leave to bring in a Bill for the abolition of slavery; Ayes 83, Nays 87"

"Every virtuous man will rejoice to hear that a Negro standard is now floating" - Britain recognizes and will defend St. Domingo's independence

Saint John's Island becomes Prince Edward Island to stop its mail going to Saint John, N.B., St. John's, Newf. and "St. Johns on the Labrador Coast"

Hudson's Bay Company concerned that Canadian traders are in "the very heart of York & Severn Bungee Country," making two posts "great sufferers"

Moravians in Labrador find "some time is required before these poor heathen, so deeply sunk in the mire of sin, [truly accept] our Savior"

"Admiral Nelson, in consequence of the loss of his arm, is to return from actual service" and go on rear admirals' superannuated list

France's gathering invasion force includes 50 "Philosophers [who] are to be furnished with instruments[...]for making discoveries" in Britain