1808 in Canada
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Events from the year 1808 in Canada.
Incumbents
Federal government
- Parliament of Lower Canada: 4th (until April 27)
- Parliament of Upper Canada: 4th (until March 16)
Governors
Events
- David Thompson explores Kootenay River.
- Simon Fraser follows Fraser River to the Pacific.
- The American Fur Company is chartered by John Jacob Astor to compete with Canadian fur trade
- The Upper Canada Militia Act 1808 states that all males between ages of sixteen and sixty are required to enroll as militiamen and are to be called out once a year for exercises
- The Legislative Assembly of Quebec criticizes the swearing-in of Ezekiel Hart because he is of Jewish faith, and votes his expulsion.
Births
- April – Charles Wilson, politician (d.1877)
- April 7 – John Langton, businessman, political figure and civil servant (d.1894)
- April 10 – William Annand, 2nd Premier of Nova Scotia (d.1887)
- April 25 – Malcolm Cameron, businessman and politician (d.1876)
- August 15 or September 16 – Charles Fisher, politician and 1st Premier of the Colony of New Brunswick (d.1880)
- September 14 – Edwin Atwater, businessperson and municipal politician (d.1874)
- October 20 – Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau, lawyer, businessman and politician (d.1894)
Deaths
- November 10 : Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, military and governor
- Peter Russell (politician), judge
Historical documents
Treasury Secretary tells President Jefferson that unless there's change in European affairs, "I see no alternative but war. But with whom?"[2]
British newspaper reports 5,000 troops are on transports at Portsmouth to sail to North America accompanied by 5 ships of the line[3]
British foreword to U.S. pamphlet labels "affairs of the United States" important since U.S. became commercial rivals and "challengers in war"[4]
U.S. embargo on trade has given Canada and Nova Scotia sole access to Europe and West Indies, formerly markets of northern states[5]
Embargo means Canadas' "commercial intercourse with the States must increase," as will ship construction and trade in hemp and naval stores[6]
Total 116 British ships of the line (2 in North America) along with 50-gun warships are naval force "superior to that of the whole world beside"[7]
John Jacob Astor seeks approval of U.S. government to take continental fur trade away from Canada[8]
Lower Canada
Lower Town Quebec City deserves proper fire insurance coverage because its layout relative to winds and river make it less vulnerable to fire[9]
House of Assembly committee reports that provincial bank would reduce loss of specie in unfavourable balance of trade with U.S.A.[10]
Defeated candidate in Assembly election in Trois-Rivières petitions it not to seat winner Ezekiel Hart as he is Jewish and can't take oath[11]
Assembly passes "An Act for disabling Judges from being elected, or from sitting and voting in the House of Assembly" (defeated in Council)[12]
Winner of Assembly seat for Huntingdon County thanks voters for seeing through rival's "falsehoods, the most gross and most barefaced"[13]
To be established: "An Academy for the instruction of all Members [elected] to serve in the ensuing House of Assembly" who can't read or write[14]
Vermont town meetings are being held to seek embargo repeal, which would be better than exporting timber by force on Lake Champlain[15]
Young Army officers are advised to play billiards to learn "dislodging[...]an enemy; taking a secure position; making famous coups de main" etc.[16]
Dancing teacher will show children "the present style of dancing, conceiving it of no utility to [teach] steps and figures of the Old School"[17]
Aging bachelor who "dislikes contradiction and has been accustomed to have his own way" seeks patient, calm, middle-age woman housekeeper[18]
Upper Canada
Beginning five years of study with lawyer, Sandwich man tells his brother of local "apprehensions of war" with U.S.A.[19]
Isaac Brock is alerted to U.S. troop movements to Detroit and Great Lakes, and capture of British boats carrying supplies to Indigenous people[20]
Lt.-Gov. Gore sent for because of Indigenous people's "very violent resolutions" on blockage of their annual supplies by U.S. officials[21]
(Probably) John Norton's ideas for increasing financial support for Indigenous peoples on Grand River and moving them to reserve near Lake Huron[22]
Elite grammar school in Cornwall affords excellent education "without endangering the morals of the pupils by the contagion of the vices of a city"[23]
Lake Erie Anglican mission reports "900 Papists, 200 Protestants, Professors of the Church 150, Scotch Dissenters 50 [and 5,000] Heathens and Infidels"[24]
Parishioners' contract in call to minister in Williamsburg township details his duties and annual salary, food supplies and firewood[25]
"Be not puffed up nor exalted one above another" - in meekness and diffidence, Friends know they are saved by grace "and that not of ourselves"[26]
While noting settlers' limited diet, St. Joseph Island merchant derides Indigenous use of fish (Note: racial stereotypes)[27]
Nova Scotia
N.S. and New Brunswick are key to Britain for their large and convenient harbours, and their ability to supply British West Indies when U.S.A. won't[28]
Convoy of ships to West Indies carries fish, oil, claret and brandy, lumber, staves and shingles, flour, bread, meat, rice etc.[29]
Because of rebellion in Spain against French domination, dozens of Spanish prisoners of war in Halifax are freed and sent to Havana[30]
"Loyal and spirited behaviour" of Acadian militia regiment is noted when it supplies more than required number of volunteers for duty[31]
"Your petitioners are far from pretending to advocate Slavery as a System," but want such still-legal ownership either secured or compensated[32]
Resident says Shelburne people are uneasy about local Indigenous people, but he finds them not dangerous, just "almost every Day Beging about town"[33]
Minister says that of more than 400 families in his township, only 36 are Anglican, "the rest being nondiscripts of no settled principles"[34]
New Brunswick
Feeling they were not called up legally, militiamen are deserting to go farm and fish, there being not enough workers to cover for them[35]
Widow of Assembly member who drowned in 1803 and left her with 5 small children and estate "found insolvent" petitions for "pecuniary relief"[36]
Ship anchored in Bliss Harbour travels 3 miles at 15 knots before anchor cable is cut, freeing whale that was probably chasing herring[37]
Newfoundland
Instead of land grant, fishery is regulated by giving fishing room to applicant who then has exclusive right to fish adjacent waters[38]
Anglican missionaries in Newfoundland, numbering only three, preach at St. John's, Harbour Grace and Carbonear, and Trinity[39]
Labrador
Inuit "miserably manage" their children's education "and harm must almost inevitably ensue from their very habits of living together"[40]
"Comfort, instruction, and spiritual refreshment" - Missionaries disappointed when supply ship brings no letters or texts from war-torn Germany[41]
Hudson's Bay Company
Ice breakup floods Fort Albany, with water rising even higher than "dreadful deluge" of 1794 and dark of night adding "to the terror of the Scene"[42]
Albany men damage fur bundles by putting them in canoe with seams "so much opened by the sun so as admit a mans finger" and then not drying them[43]
Elsewhere
British are losing claims to Michigan properties because of "American rascality" and U.S. law requiring continuous cultivation of land[44]
Prince Edward Island has black birch (Betula nigra), which is used in shipbuilding, has light colour like mahogany and "takes as good a polish"[45]