As one of the passenger vessels was from Aberdeen, it is not likely that all the immigrants this year were from Yorkshire.At Halifax, the women and children going to Cumberland were put on board a schooner bound for Chignecto, and the younger man started to make the journey on foot.The latter took the usual road to Fort Edward; from there they went by boat to Parrsboro', and then followed the high ridge of land called the "Boar's Back," to River Hebert.At Minudie they found boats to carry them to Fort Cumberland, where they were given a right royal Yorkshire welcome by their wives and children, who had reached the fort before them.From Fort Cumberland the immigrants quickly began to look around the country for suitable locations.
Those by the name of Black, Freeze, Robinson, Lusby, Oxley and Forster bought farms at Amherst and Amherst Point.Keilor, Siddall, Wells, Lowerson, Trueman, Chapman, Donkin, Read, Carter, King, Trenholm, Dobson and Smith were the names of those who settled at Westmoreland Point, Point de Bute and Fort Lawrence.The names of the Sackville contingent were Dixon, Bowser, Atkinson, Anderson, Bulmer, Harper, Patterson, Fawcett, Richardson, Humphrey, Cornforth and Wry.Brown, Lodge, Ripley, Shepley, Pipes, Coates, Harrison, Fenwick and others settled at Nappan, Maccan and River Hebert.
Hants and King's County, in Nova Scotia, got a part of this immigration.Those who came to Cumberland were too late to secure any of the vacated Acadian farms before others had got possession, these lands having been pre-empted by the New Englanders and the traders who followed the army.Those who had the means, however, seem to have found no difficulty in purchasing from the owners, and very quickly set to work to adjust themselves to the new conditions.So effectually did they do this, that almost every man of them succeeded in making a comfortable home for his family.
The local historians of those times claim that these English settlers, arriving as they did just before the Revolutionary war, saved Nova Scotia to the British Crown.If that is the correct opinion, and we are more disposed to believe it is true than to question its accuracy, then the British Empire is more indebted to these loyal Yorkshire immigrants than history has ever given them credit for.The Eddy Rebellion proved that the New Englanders, who constituted a large part of the inhabitants of Chignecto previous to the arrival of the English, sympathized very generally with the revolutionists, and were ready to help their cause to the extent of taking up arms, if necessary, on its behalf.These English immigrants were not soldiers; most of them were farmers and mechanics who had taken little part in the discussions of public questions, but they were loyal subjects of the King of Great Britain.They always had been, and they always expected to be, loyal.
The headquarters of the rebellion was in Cumberland, and it was in Cumberland that the largest number of these Englishmen settled.
In 1776, Mr.Arbuthnot writes, "There is an absolute necessity for troops to be sent to Fort Cumberland, Annapolis Royal, and a few to Fort Edward and Windsor for protection, with the help of His Majesty's loyal subjects who consist of English farmers.A sober, religious people, though ignorant of the use of arms, will afford every assistance." He says the others are from New England and will join in any rebellion.Murdock thinks that Arburthnot did not judge the New England men fairly; that many of them were loyal subjects of Great Britain, and did not want to be mixed up in the trouble and discussion between Great Britain and her older colonies.
