1785-1794, by Edouard A. Stackpole

15

The Nantucket Colony at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia—1785-1794

BY EDOUARD A. STACKPOLE

IN THE STUDY of the post-Revolutionary War period of our nation's history we become aware of the marked contrast in New England to what might have been an acceptance of the success of the Colonial arms. A new country had been created, but it was still not established. The issue of individual state rights and/or national unity was not yet resolved.

At Sherborn, on the Island of Nantucket, a strong Loyalist sentiment was still a factor. Of vital importance was the loss of the Island port's chief market for whale oil and candles — London. The British government had placed a heavy duty on the importation of these American products, and the Nantucket whalemen were faced with a long depression and probable ruin or accepting invitations to remove to England or a British province. Many chose the latter course. Among the migrating groups was a miniature colony which sailed away to settle at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

The movement was a more natural step than might at first be realized. Two decades before (1761) a number of Nantucket families had accepted an invitation to settle at Barrington, Nova Scotia, joining other New Englanders from Cape Cod and Plymouth. Led by Reuben Folger. Joseph Worth and Shubael Folger, thirty-five Nantucketers sailed for Cape Sable and Barrington township, together with a dozen families from the Cape.

During the war, the little colony suffered greatly, but only a few families returned to Nantucket. The number of Loyalists who escaped from New England during the war included a group who settled in Shelburne, close to Barrington. At the end of the war, Port Roseway, also on Nova Scotia's southern shore, became a prospective whaling port, with a numbei of Loyalists from Nantucket settling there. Oil from Nova Scotia could be sold in England with only a small tax instead of the prohibitive duty. It was this fact which induced the first idea of removal by the'post-Revolution group from Nantucket.

The second, and equally effective factor, was^ the stiong Loyalist sentiments on the part of the two leaders in the Dartmouth migration — Samuel Starbuck, Sr., and Timothy Folger. These two men were bound together by not only a sameness of principles but by marriage ties. Samuel Starbuck, the elder, was then in his 58th year, and had married Abigail Barney. Of the ten

16 HISTORIC NANTUCKET children born to them on Nantucket only two had grown to maturity — Samuel, Jr., and Daniel, both of whom joined their parents in the removal to Dartmouth. Samuel, Jr., had married Lucretia Folger, daughter of Captain- Timothy Folger, the coleader.

Captain Folger was then 53 years old, and had led an active life. After experiencing several whaling voyages he had become interested in the mercantile trade, and became well known as a shipmaster carrying whale oil to London. It was on one of these voyages, in about the year 1757, that he met his cousin Benjamin Franklin in London and, in response to Franklin's inquiries, Captain Folger drew a chart of the mysterious Gulf Stream which afterwards Franklin had engraved and published. Folger became associated with a number of business firms in Nantucket, London and Boston, and it was in the latter city that he sat for his portrait by none other than the distinguished artist Copley.

As strong Loyalists, both Starbuck and Folger were advocates of the King's cause during the Revolution, but both had joined the Islanders led by William Rotch, Sr., who successfully kept Nantucket in a neutral role throughout the war, thus saving Sherborn from possible British naval attack.

It is not clear as to who originated overtures for the Nantucket movement to Nova Scotia, but a Canadian historian has stated "such evidence as there is points to the possibility of suggestions for removal having come first from Nova Scotia," suggesting they came from Governor Parr of that Province. In any event, Messrs. Starbuck and Folger sailed for Halifax and a conference with Parr, probably in the spring of 17,85, and were cordially received. Application for the migration was made in July of that year, as recorded in the Public Archives at Halifax. The Nantucketers wished to have their whaleships registered as British; inquired as to the land available for their homes, warehouses and wharves, and requested protection for their religious views as members of the Society of Friends.

Governor Parr, with the approval of his Assembly, arranged for these requests to be granted, and the little hamlet of Dartmouth, across the harbor from Halifax, was designated as the place for settlement. The Assembly voted £1500 to build homes for the new colony, and 2000 acres of land was set aside for the Nantucketers: ". . . for the purpose of carrying on the whale-fishery, in consideration thereof we move to the Governor and Council that they would Grant to your Memorialists . . . the following lands at Wisdom's and King's Grants with the Coves and Nooks of land, that was known by the name of the Common Lotte, containing five hundred and fifty-six acres more or less and likewise one hundred rods square on the Common beginning . . ."

Returning to Nantucket, Samuel Starbuck gathered the first group for the migration, and they sailed for Halifax "with three

NANTUCKET COLONY AT DARTMOUTH, N. S. 17 brigantines. and a schooner, with their crews and everything necessary for the whale fishery." Some 447 tons of sperm oil, belonging to Starbuck and Folger, together with three tons from Gideon Gardner, were also brought with the vessels, to be promptly shipped to London as British oil — thus to escape the heavy import duty, only 15 shillings tax on Colonial oil being required.

Using Mill Cove as the location for their first wharf, the Nantucket men moored their ships and began erecting their homes. There can be little doubt but that they brought many household articles with them, as well as bedding and clothing. It is probable that a number of houses were brought from Nantucket in bays to be re-erected, although there are no records extant to substantiate the fact.

The co-leader of the colony, Timothy Folger, superintended the embarcation of the second group from Nantucket. Sailing early in June, 1786, they arrived safely at Halifax. With the Folger family came the family of Samuel Starbuck, Jr., Lucretia (Folger) Starbuck and their two children. By mid-summer, 1786, twenty Nantucket families, represented by over sixty-five men, women and children, had reached their new homes in Dartmouth. An equal number of whalemen were in the crews of the whaleships, which soon put to sea on their first voyages out of the Nova Scotia port.

The colony was centered around the group of Quakers and their families, and these have been identified as: Samuel Starbuck and his wife, Abigail (Barney) Starbuck and two children; Timothy Folger and his wife, Abial (Coleman) Folger, and son, Benjamin Franklin Folger; Samuel Starbuck, Jr., and his wife Lucretia (Folger) Starbuck and two children; Seth and Deborah Coleman and their nine children; Tristram and Rachel Swain and five children; Silas Swain; Peter and Sarah Macy and two children; Zachariah and Judith Bunker and three children; Jonathan and Phebe Coffin and four children; Mary Swain; George Macy, John Chadwick; William and Elizabeth Ray and three children; Barnabas Swain; Jonathan Barnard; Tristram Folger; Nathaniel Macy; Brown Coffin; William Barnard; Seth Paddack; Daniel and Alice Starbuck and four children; Edmund Macy, who married Susannah Coleman.

At this time (April, 1786) the Dartmouth fleet had increased from nine to fifteen vessels. Most of the voyages were of about a year's duration, and the "lay" system attracted a number of young Nova Scotians who found whaling a new way of life.

Dartmouth's fleet developed rapidly. The first ships registered (1785-86) were the Lucretia, Captain Jonathan Swain; Lively, Captain John Chadwick; Romulus, Captain George Earle; Somerset, Captain Daniel Kelley; Sally, Captain Daniel Ray, and Lucy Captain Francis Coffin.

18 HISTORIC NANTUCKET

On September 6, 1786, the merchant ship Lyon sailed from Halifax for London with 135 tons of sperm, 40 tons of black oil and 8,759 pounds of bone. This was worth some £10,000 on the British market. In the first year the venture brought in £14,180. Subsequent years of the Dartmouth fishery yielded as high as £20,000 annually as income from the whaling fleet.

Two spermaceti candle factories were set up — one in Halifax and one in Dartmouth. With the introduction of this industry the Nantucket colony posed an even stronger threat to the London merchants, as the manufacture of these fine candles meant the sale of the finest lighting tapers known, with a ready market in the West Indies as well as in England.

The majority of the Dartmouth fleet were vessels averaging 120 tons burthen, sailing to the Brazil Banks and the Coast of Africa. Each vessel's commander had a "Mediterranean Pass," which gave them protection as British subjects. In the 1786-1787 season six new additions were made to the fleet — the Parr, Captain Tristram Folger; the Sally, Captain William Slade; the Prince William Henry, Captain Matthew Pinkham; the Watson, Captain Daniel Ray: the Rachel, Captain Francis Coffin; the Hero. Captain Valentine Pease: Hibemia, Captain Francis Coffin, and Donnahu, Captain Seth Paddack.

According to an advertisement in the Nova Scotia Gazette, Spermaceti, Candles and Strained Oil were for sale at "Mr. Stewart's, opposite St. Paul's Church, below the parade," and were "products of this Province." In the files of the Halifax Journal, for April, 1788 may be found similar advertisements. From a report of Commissioners to Governor Parr in 1788, it was shown that the products of three years voyaging on the part of Nantucketers at Dartmouth had resulted in an export of oil to England totaling a worth of £61,500.

In a report on the fishery to Governor Parr, Speaker Uniacke, of the Nova Scotian Assembly, commented on August 15, 1791: "From two to three hundred men have been employed on an average each year in these Voyages and besides the British Shipping and Seamen which are employed in freighting the oil from Nova Scotia to London there is also a like or greater quantity of British Shipping employed in bringing back from Great Britain the returns for the Oil so shipped, the whole of such returns consist of all kinds of British Manufactures suitable for the Fishery and other consumption of the Province."

The success of the enterprise was evident on every side at Dartmouth. Mechanics did well and most of the persons connected with the fishery became well-to-do. Many native Dartmouth youths shipped aboard the whaleships. In the files of the Nova Scotian of Halifax is the following paragraph: "When the usual period of the arrival of the vessels approached, all persons were filled with expectations and anxiety.

NANTUCKET COLONY AT DARTMOUTH, N. S. 19 The success of each voyage inspired a more than ordinary interest in its result, and their relatives and friends were eager to hear the recital of their adventures, and welcome them to their home after all their toils and dangers."

Here was a familiar pattern. It was, like old Nantucket, still the outstanding example of the sole community enterprise of that island — whaling. Dartmouth had gained much. The Provincial Commissioners wisely observed to Governor Parr: "The Province is now possessed of every kind of artifices necessary to fit out Vessels in the Southern Whale-Fishery, as well as some of the best Navigators that that Island of Nantucket has produced, . . . the great advantage which the Commerce and Navigation of the Mother Country will derive from this Establishment."

The next season (178,8) found the Lucretia, Captain Jonathan Coffin, 2nd, bringing in the largest cargo to date, 250 bbls. of sperm oil, 300 bbls. of right whale oil, and 2000 lbs. of cut bone. The brigantine Industry, Captain William Chadwick, was another addition in this year, as was the Argo, Captain Ebenezer Bailey, and the Nancy, Captain Jonathan Barnard.

The whaleships usually sailed in the autumn of the year for the South Atlantic, their cruising ranging from the Brazil Banks to the Coast of Africa. These whaleships averaged 180 tons each, and were around 80 to 90 feet in length, carrying crews of 14 men. In 1788, a particularly successful year, the return cargo averaged 48 tons of both black (right whale) and sperm oil, together with bone. Sperm oil at this time was bringing £55 per ton and the rich "head matter," used in candle making, sold at £65 per ton. Right whale oil usually brought about £35 per ton.

At the little town of Dartmouth the Nantucketers became the busy center of the community life, developing their land as well as sea holdings. The 2156 acres, originally surveyed for their use, included 556 acres in the heart of the town. The lot layouts were interesting, being laid out in squares from the Cove. The Quaker Meeting House occupied the customary position on the hill overlooking the transported Nantucketer. Even today, the few old houses built by the emigrants which still remain may be easily recognized by their typical lines of island architecture. The home of Timothy Folger still stands at Nine South Street. Folger did not sell it until 1793. It later passed into the hands of a Col. Quarrel, who also bought another house of Folger's at the corner of Commercial and Portland Streets. The old Folger house on South Street had four rooms on a floor, two stories high, with five fireplaces. A stone wall enclosed the property.

20

NANTUCKET COLONY AT DARTMOUTH, N. S. 21

The little colony had received some visiting Friends and one of them, John Townsend, with others from Nantucket described attending a Quaker Meeting which was held in the Court House, at which Governor Parr and his family were present. Townsend kept a journal of his visit, and the original manuscript is in the Peter Foulger Museum at Nantucket. He gives the following account of his visit to Dartmouth: "We sailed from Nantucket the 4th, 7 mo. 1786 at Six in the morning and arrived at Halifax on the 8th following about II oClock in the forenoon: we waited on the Governor & Collector for leave to Anchor informing them we were on a Religious Visit & not on trade, they Received us very kindly, we then came to Anchor at Dartmouth where some of our Friends were settled & building a Town and went on shore to Sam'l Starbucks who with his family are settled there, we stayed Meeting with them on First Day and then proceeded for the Island of St. Johns."

Returning from St. Johns, Townsend and his associates again visited Dartmouth: "We went after Brakefast with Saml Starbuck over to Hallifax and waited on the Governor and proposed to him our holding a Publick Meeting amongst the Inhabitants at which he seemed well pleased and readily Granted the Use of the Court House to meet in. Accordingly we appointed a Meeting to be held at II Next day which was large. The Governor [Parr] and famely with many of the Inhabitants attended."

Townsend visited Shelburne, N. S., before returning to Nantucket. The result of his visit to the Province was the formation of the Dartmouth Monthly Meeting of the Friends, on November 11, 1786, after the parent Nantucket Meeting received a petition, which was granted. This Meeting remained a part of the Nantucket Meeting, and when the Dartmouth Quakers transferred themselves to Milford Haven, Wales, the records of their Meeting were returned to the Nantucket Meeting. They now repose in the vault of the Peter Foulgei Museum.

The location of the Nantucket Friends Meeting House is believed to have been the northeast corner of King and Queen streets After the Quakers had left Dartmouth the old building was used as a school and a hall. When the Dartmouth Central School was erected the original structure was razed.

Among the Nantucket families remaining at Dartmouth after most had departed was that of Seth Coleman. For many years his account book was preserved by a grandson, Justice Russell, of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and a native of Dartmouth Coleman was a boat-builder, and some of his entries referred to the shins Sally and Parr. Such entries as flour at 33 shillings a b^rel in 1788, cordwood at 2s 6d, a broadcloth coat at 12 lis,

22 HISTORIC NANTUCKET

made the journal of historical interest. Unfortunately it was burned in a fire which destroyed Justice Russell's gunning camp. Seth Coleman's reputation was high. When the smallpox struck Dartmouth, Governor Sherbrooke appointed Coleman to the task of vaccinating 400 people in the area. On another occasion he was sent to Sable Island to investigate life saving facilities there and his recommendations upon return were adopted by the government. One of his grandsons, Captain William Coleman, was in charge of the Dartmouth ferry fleet for a number of years.

During my visit to Dartmouth in 1951 I visited Mrs. James Marsters, a descendant of Seth Coleman, who told me that Seth Coleman was considered the leader of the Nantucket group following the departure of Samuel Starbuck and Timothy Folger. As Clerk of the Friends Meeting, Seth Coleman had to record not only the activities of the Nantucket Quaker colony but to correspond with the parent Nantucket Monthly Meeting. His son, John Brown Coleman, married Elizabeth Coffin, daughter of Reuben and Parnell Coffin, and became the parents of John B. Coleman, born in 1800 at Dartmouth.

As was the custom of the time, John B. Coleman went to sea at an early age, probably in one of the last of the DartmouthHalifax whaleships. In 1821 he moved to Nantucket, having in the interim learned the trade of carpenter. His brother, James Coleman, was a shipwright, and it is possible may have worked with his brother. In Nantucket, John B. Coleman went to sea on the whaleship Boston, and on his next voyage was second mate of the ship Golden Farmer. After one voyage as mate of the Zenas Coffin, he took the same vessel as her master. In 1836 he sailed as master of the Catawba, returning from a three and one-half-year voyage in September, 1839. In December, 1840, he sailed as master of the Charles and Henry. It was on this long 50-month voyage that Captain Coleman, while the ship was at Eimeo, "signed on" a young runaway sailor named Herman Melville, and when the ship reached Honolulu the new hand received an honorable discharge. Thus, as master of Melville's third whaler (for years a mystery ship, until Pro. Wilson Heflin identified her), Captain Coleman has also a share in literary history, as noted in Melville's Omoo.

Several of the Halifax merchants invested in the Dartmouth whaling fleet, notably Thomas Cochrane who had been one of the first supporters of the Nantucket migration. Other Nantucket Quaker families joined the colony, Paul Worth, who married Phebe Barnard, Shubael Clark, Joseph Clasby,' Benjamin Folger and Stephen Rawson. Among other Quakers who were not Nantucket natives but who joined the Dartmouth Meeting, were Matthew Flannery, Jonathan Foster, John King, Thomas King, James King, Roderick McKenzie, David and Peggy Grive, and Mahon Grive.

NANTUCKET COLONY AT DARTMOUTH, N. S. 23

But the success of the Dartmouth whaling was to prove its undoing. Powerful political influence in Britain supported the London whaling merchants who had found the Dartmouth competition a challenge. Convinced that the connection with Nantucket was a means by which American oil could be virtually smuggled through Dartmouth to England, the Board of Trade, through the Home Secretary, Lord Sydney, determined "not to encourage the Southern Whale Fishery that may be carried on by persons who have removed from Nantucket and other places within the American states, excepting they shall exercise the Fishery directly from Great Britain." At the same time no new Nantucket vessels were permitted to sail from Dartmouth as British registries were denied them.

Greatly depressed by this turn of events, Governor Parr could only obey the directive. The effect on the leaders of the Nantucket colony was to recognize the over-powering influence of the London merchants. Governor Parr died in November 1791, thus removing their strongest ally. Before this, however, (1790) a proposal was received from England for the removal of the experienced whalers to Britain, and the two leading merchants, Messrs. Starbuck and Folger, were convinced that this was the best plan for the future of the Dartmouth colony. But there were obviously a number of individuals in the group who did not agree, and this fact became evident in subsequent developments.

The proposal was that the Dartmouth-Nantucketers transfer their interests to Milford Haven, in Wales, where again land had been set aside for them. At a meeting of the inhabitants Samuel Starbuck made the formal proposal, which he and Timothy Folger favored. In June, 1791, the records of the Dartmouth Friends Meeting contain a letter from the Nantucket Meeting, offering "advice" upon "receiving information that you were meditating a Removal to Great Britain and had prepared conditions for that purpose."

Commenting that the "subject appears weighty and Momentous," the Nantucket brethren acquainted the Dartmouth Friends with their "tender and affectionate advice," and reminded them that "the consequence of said removal may be the breaking up of said Meeting.'

It was at this time that Seth Coleman and Thomas Greene were appointed a committee to investigate the conduct of Samuel Starbuck and his two sons, Daniel and Samuel, Jr., who had requested certificates from the Nantucket Meeting, preparatory to their removal. Coleman, who had been appointed Clerk of the Dartmouth Meeting, wrote in reply: "Agreeable to appointment we have made inquiry into the conduct and state of Samuel Starbuck, Daniel and Samuel Starbuck, Jr., and find nothing to the contrary but that the business

24

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

of Daniel and Samuel, Jr., both in respect to their Acts and their Bills that were said to be noted for a protest were duly answered and all stand fair. But people here generally find fault with Samuel Starbuck for being accessory in sending some private proposals on his own Acc't while he was instructed by the inhabitants with sending a Public one, which has in all probability been of much injury to the Interest of Dartmouth. Indeed we are sorry to say that we fear he did not act with that Integrity that might of been expected from one professing with us."

This record was approved and the Clerk forwarded it to Nantucket. In a reply from the parent Meeting, a request was made for "an explanation of the complaint of the Inhabitants of Dartmouth against Samuel Starbuck, Sr." To this the committee answered that, following the visit of "a person from England with authority, it was said, to receive proposals of Inhabitants of Dartmouth for the purpose of removing with their Families to the shores of Great Britain for to carry on the Whale Fishery," a meeting was held and it was "agreed that each man's property should be estimated and proposals fixed on which s'd Inhabitants would be willing to remove."

This being accomplished, the Dartmouth Meeting's report continued, "Samuel then proposed that if the above proposals were acceded to, the Inhabitants should one and all go, but if not to their satisfaction all should stay, which he requested each to express their approbation of individually, which was received to mean for the mutual benefit of each other. This being done, each man put his name to his respective estimate and agreed they should be sent forward. Some time after it was reported there was a private Memorial that had likewise gone forward, a report too absurd to have been believed had it not come from a near connection in the families. However, when said Inhabitants received an answer to their proposals (which was far from being what was asked or satisfactory) with a partial annuity to those who had undertaken to negotiate the public business, this seemed to corroborate the above report of such a [private] Memorial going forward."

The Nantucket Meeting then granted certificates to all the Dartmouth people who proposed removing "to Europe" except Samuel Starbuck, as they "were under great Imbarrassments whether he has done anything that will bring him under dealing."

Samuel Starbuck and his family had already sailed to Milford Haven, to treat with Charles Greville, the chief advocate of the Dartmouth Colony's removal to Wales. Writing from Milford in June, 1794, the elder Samuel Starbuck expressed his "grevious hurt" by the circumstance which was so "injurious to my reputation." He declared that upon learning of the opportunity of removal to Milford, he and his sons had decided to "act

NANTUCKET COLONY AT DARTMOUTH, N. S. 25 disconnected from any other person," although they had a "natural affection with other settlers." Timothy Folger, however, had advised that all should act together. A committee had thereupon acted for the colony, Starbuck declared, "to which I was not named nor consulted." After an agreement had been reached, Starbuck and Folger petitioned the Crown for an annuity "for ourselves and wives in consequence of what we had suffered in the American War." To this compensation they were as justly entitled as any other prominent Loyalist.

However, as Seth Coleman, of Dartmouth, wrote: "Was this doing as he would be done by?" There will always be the question: As a principal promoter in the migration from Nantucket to Halifax, had he abused his privilege by "furthering his own ends" at the expense of the Dartmouth Colony? It must be remembered that, at their first migration, the whalemen "could not obtain the least favor from Governor Parr without the sanction of Samuel Starbuck or Timothy Folger." Naturally, they still considered Starbuck a leader when the time came for removal to Milford. Starbuck had himself declared in Meeting "that it was the families of the whalemen that the British government wanted, and not their land at Dartmouth."

Several families from Dartmouth decided to join Samuel Starbuck and his sons and Timothy and Abial Folger in Wales, but others remained in Nova Scotia.

In the summer of 1793, across the intervening ocean, a fleet of six whaleships ultimately sailed slowly into a magnificent harbor at Milford Haven. From their decks, the Quaker whalemen and their families looked up at the craggy hills of Wales. This was a new- and splendid opportunity; the land was rich, the harbor unexcelled — but would they not have preferred the sandy shores and rolling heath of their real homeland of Nantucket? * * * *

At Mill Cove in Dartmouth, on the facade of a warehouse, is affixed a bronze plaque bearing the words Nearby stood the Wharves and Manufactures of the Whaling Company from Nantucket, Mass. 1785 - 1792.

The "Common," which the Nantucket colony set aside is perhaps the finest monument to the farsightedness of those settlers, and it is fitting that "Nantucket Avenue" should lead to this part of the town.

Today the Dartmouth Heritage group is raising funds to restore one of the homes originally erected by one of the Nantucket families, called the Jackson House on Ochterloney Street.

NANTUCKET COLONY AT DARTMOUTH, N. S. „ 27 Ihis is thought to be the oldest known dwelling in that section of the town where the Nantucket colony first settled. During a visit to Nova Scotia in 1951, the late John Martin stated it was his opinion that this was probably the first of the Nantucket houses built in Dartmouth.

In any event, the project is a laudable one, and it is to be hoped that this is an initial step in more closely re-establishing the historic bond between Dartmouth and Nantucket. In an age notable for advances in technology it is well to recall the more significant attributes of the human spirit. The story of the Nantucket migration to Dartmouth brings such attributes into a clearer light and should serve as a constant reminder of the values therein.