# 1805 in Canada

Events from the year 1805 in Canada.

## Incumbents

* Monarch: George III

### Federal government

* Parliament of Lower Canada: 4th (starting January 9)
* Parliament of Upper Canada: 4th (starting February 1)

### Governors

* Governor of the Canadas: Robert Milnes then Thomas Dunn
* Governor of New Brunswick: Thomas Carleton
* Governor of Nova Scotia: John Wentworth
* Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland: Erasmus Gower
* Governor of Prince Edward Island: Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres
* Governor of Upper Canada: Peter Hunter (until 21 August)

## Events

* January 29 – 4th Parliament of Lower Canada session starts, ends April 27, 1808
* February 1 – 4th Parliament of Upper Canada session starts, ends May 21, 1808
* 100th Regiment of Foot (Prince Regent's County of Dublin Regiment) arrives in Nova Scotia
* Vermont passes an act to establish the line between it and Canada.

## Births

* February 16 – Edmund Walker Head, Governor General (d.1868)
* August 26 – Joseph-Bruno Guigues, first bishop of the diocese of Bytown (Ottawa) (d.1874)
* December 8 – Amand Landry, farmer and politician (d.1877)

### Full date unknown

* John Kent, Premier of Newfoundland (d.1872)

## Deaths

* March 23 – Richard Dobie, an early Canadian businessman and a sometimes partner of Benjamin Frobisher (born 1731)

## Historical documents

Settler writes to Scottish Highlands friends "I never knew what actual freedom or the spirit of equality was till I came to Canada"
"This country derives little credit from the young men it sends abroad into the world;" Why?: "too little restraint in the bringing up"
Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry is recruiting in Lower and Upper Canada for service "in America and not elsewhere;" enlistment bounty: £5 -/6
U.S. Secretary of State James Madison purchases George Heriot's The History of Canada from its first discovery

### Lower Canada

Call for road to be built from Quebec City through "New Settlements" to U.S.A., which will allow more trade and encourage population growth
"Vendor or Lendor" has preference over any other creditor when they provide grain (seed or "bread") or potatoes to grower suffering poor harvest
Ceremonial presentation of colours to Quebec City militia battalion is "grand and impressive beyond any thing usually witnessed in this country"
Montreal merchants call for laws to raise water level in Lachine Rapids, regulate pilots there and stop theft of lumber when rafts are wrecked
No sale of goods or alcoholic drinks on Sundays, except that latter can be sold to sick people and to travellers at meals
Post office calls for proposals to carry mail between Montreal and Burlington, Vt. on 100-mile route; £100 security required from contractor
Editorial describes "folly [and] depravity" of young criminals, especially where "the soil [and] far extended commerce" offer so much opportunity
Orchardists in Parish of Montreal must tie cloth around trunk of each apple tree and cover it with tar to stop spread of inchworms
Surveyor will teach branches of mathematics as applied to mensuration, gauging, navigation, gunnery, fortification, architecture, surveying etc.
Dr. S. Solomon's Guide to Health offers remedies for diseases under several headings, including Dancing, Heavy suppers, Timidity, and Virgins
Quebec City theatre to be built for "several Young Men [who] possess strong Theatrical qualifications, particularly in the comic cast of Characters"
Opera by "Mr. Quesnel of Boucherville[...]is perhaps the first piece of the kind that has been written and performed in this province"
New "Bottled Beer Business" will sell 3 kinds (brewed in St. Roch) ranging in price from 8/6 to 10/6 per dozen, with 3/- paid when bottles returned
Benjamin Rush reluctantly allows his daughter to marry British army officer she met while visiting her married sister in Montreal

### Upper Canada

Profile of U.C. includes produce, trade, York and various townships, towns and waterways
"Indenture" of original 1787 Toronto Purchase agreement transferring Mississaugas' land to government has borders not corrected until 2010 settlement
After watching "old drunken Indian and his squaw" be refused liquor, visitor hears "greatest part" of Indigenous people's presents is traded for liquor
Creditor is to maintain their jailed debtor at 5 shillings per week if such debtor swears they are not worth £5
Methodist women ensure conversion at Hay Bay, Upper Canada revival meeting
"The authority, the love of a husband even out does that of a parent" - immigrant visits parents on Long Island, N.Y., but feels pull to return home
"This heroine" - Pitcairn Township (near York) woman chases bear that had carried off neighbour's sow into forest and shoots it through head
English traveller finds Niagara Falls' roar and mist make them seem closer than they are, and learns constant earth tremor shakes window glass
"Aspect terrible" - Perhaps 150-foot snake chases rowboat crossing Lake Ontario from Kingston

### Nova Scotia

Fishery revival to come following order to West Indian governors to largely close ports to U.S. imports and charge them same duty "these colonies" pay
With Nova Scotia–U.S.A. trade ended (except in case of grain crop failure), N.S. feels Lower Canada should remove extra duty L.C. puts on trade
During war, £90 will not buy what £50 could pre-war and 5% income tax and 10% depreciation in "Government Bills" depress wealth
Signs of "poverty & distress among the people when we See So many of [them] go off and leave their Creditors without making any provision to pay them"
Units of Royal Newfoundland Regiment, "a very fine body of" about 550 men, arrive in Halifax
Captain of ship out of N.S. tells of being captured by French fleet in West Indies and avoiding burning by claiming to be U.S. ship
With aid of British consul in Boston, Salem, Massachusetts party successfully gets release in Halifax of fishermen impressed on board frigate
People lacking Episcopalian schoolhouse or church are open to "stro[l]ling fanatical teachers" turning them against established church and government
Privateer out of Liverpool "has about 30 Negroes and to the value of about £3,000" and will "dispose" of them as soon as possible
Liverpool has "rumpus" over feared press by warship; 3 Black men go into hiding and officer struck with cutlass before misunderstanding is cleared up
Ice damages flume at Simeon Perkins' sawmill, halting production which had yielded him $4/day and possibly preventing loading of brig for Newfoundland
As ship departs, Perkins is less sad seeing his son leave than watching another man say goodbye to his son who will go seafaring and rarely come home

### New Brunswick

N.B.'s resources listed; loyal population ignored by government but not privateers, and quit-rents "in this moment of their depression" are ruinous
Edward Winslow says "broken" Council president will not be recalling General Assembly, affecting trade and causing "gloom sulkiness + despondency"
Grammar school is to be set up in Saint John plus two schools in each county, rotating schools to different parish each year

### Hudson's Bay Company

In letter to Moose Factory, Fort Albany chief calls "Canadians[...]indefatigable to push on in the (HBC's) territories"
Letter from Moose Factory to Fort Albany reports threats and abuse by Canadians against HBC employee "Quatchimay" and his wife and women fishing
Painting: "East View of Moose Factory"
Fort Albany replies to Moose Factory request for help that its trade (much larger at "20,000" as opposed to "7000") requires every man it can get
Painting: "A South East View of Albany Factory: A Winter View"
Jobs that are done at Churchill for its success and survival; it has poor location and shaky construction from use of Prince of Wales Fort ruins
Six-day sea voyage in bateau from Churchill toward York Factory and back with load of liquor
Northwest Company trader going to Cross Lake with Indigenous people reverses travel-direction marks they leave for traders at "English House"

### Western interior

Chipewyans hold on to their religion (called "a state of the darkest superstition and ignorance") and believe they are superior to whites in knowledge
"It is customary[...]to have a fair Partner" - Fur trader decides to take teenage mixed-race girl as his country wife
"How dreadfully afflicting my situation" - Disabled man is lost for 40 days on Manitoba prairies

### Northwest coast

U.S. claim to North America's northwest coast defied by Russian traders as near as Haida Gwaii and likely to try to usurp even Spanish-claimed lands
John Jewitt rescued from two years of slavery in Nootka Sound by brig captain out of Boston holding Chief Maquinna hostage
"Natives came out of their houses with lighted sticks, beating upon a plank[...]and singing to the moon" - Indigenous people observe lunar eclipse

### Elsewhere

"To make the Island more generally known" - Brief profile of Prince Edward Island
Louisiana governor suggests putting military posts on Wisconsin and Missouri rivers to control importation from Montreal and Assiniboine River
Map: Louisiana, including adjacent British and Spanish territory
Fire destroys most of Detroit, "seat of government of the Michigan Territory, [with] upwards of 300 houses, built of wood, in a compact manner"
Moravian missionaries in Labrador claim Jesus has melted "the hard hearts of the Esquimaux, harder by nature than the rocks they inhabit"
Mention of "the lamented death of our illustrious Hero, Lord Nelson"