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The Lovely Nelly or: The History of St John’s Island Lot 52: 1767–1777
History, Emigration, Biography, Geography
TDGNHAS Series III, 89 (2015), 103(4.65 MB)
This article is based on a bundle of papers forming part of a case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh between William Kirkpatrick of Conheath and Thomas Chisholm formerly of Kirkbean, both near Dumfries, discovered during research into the life and times of David Currie of Newlaw (one of Kirkpatrick’s partners) in 2011. These papers provide new information about Lot 52 on St John’s Island and the voyages of the Lovely Nelly of Whitehaven, carrying settlers there in 1774 and 1775.
Lot 52 had been drawn by three people, all by the name of Douglas. The settlement was neglected until 1775, when it was taken over by people named Tead [sic], Dodd, Curry [sic] and Fontenalle. They, too, did not bring out settlers (part of the requirements for ownership of lots), so the land reverted back to the Crown for dispersal.
Because there were so many St John’s in Canada, including in Labrador, Newfoundland and New Brunswick, in 1799 St John’s Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence was renamed Prince Edward Island, after George III’s fourth son Edward, Duke of Kent.