Samuel Vetch Samuel Vetch ( December 9 , 1668 , Edinburgh , Scotland – April 30 , 1732 ) was a Scottish soldier and colonial governor of Nova Scotia . He was a leading figure in the Darien scheme , a failed Scottish attempt to colonise the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s . During the War of the Spanish Succession he was an early proponent of the idea that Great Britain should take New France , proposing in 1708 that it be conquered and that the residents of Acadia be deported . ( The latter idea would acted on during the Seven Years ' War of the 1750s . ) Early life . Samuel Vetch was born in Edinburgh , Scotland on December 9 , 1668 , and was baptized in the Church of Scotland the next day . His father , William Veitch , was a politically active Presbyterian minister . He and his wife Marion Fairley had a number of children , of whom Samuel was the second . Veitch was arrested in the hysteria surrounding the Popish Plot in the late 1670s , but was released . The family harboured the Duke of Argyll , who was sought for his refusal to take oaths prescribed by the Test Act , and Veitch became involved in the Scottish conspiracy contributing to the Monmouth Rebellion . When that failed , Veitch went into hiding , and eventually fled to the Dutch Republic , where he was joined in 1683 by his two oldest sons , William Jr . and Samuel . The boys studied for the ministry at Utrecht , but neither was interested in pursuing that career . Both became supporters of William of Orange , and Samuel was probably in a regiment of Scottish supporters in the 1688 Glorious Revolution that brought William and Mary to power in England . He was then commissioned a cornet in the Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons , " though very young " , at the age of 20 . The regiment was sent back to the Netherlands , where it fought in the Nine Years ' War . Vetch was wounded at Steinkirk and was also in battle at Landen . By the end of the war he had been promoted to captain . Colonial ventures and business . In 1698 Vetch and his brother William joined a Scottish attempt spearheaded by William Paterson to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama . The " Darien scheme " failed due to political infighting in the colony , diseases , lack of support , and Spanish hostility . Vetch was elected to the colonial council , and was one of the survivors ( many of the 1 , 200 colonists sent to Central America , including William Vetch , succumbed to disease ) to make his way to New York in August 1699 . Vetch formed connections with the politically powerful Livingston family , marrying Margaret , the daughter of Robert Livingston in 1700 . With the Livingstons Vetch then established a highly profitable but illegal trade with New France , and eventually settled in Boston , capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay . Although he curtailed his trading activities when Queen Anne ' s War began in 1702 , he was given a renewed opportunity for trade after Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley sent him on a diplomatic mission to Quebec in 1705 as part of an embassy to recover prisoners taken in a 1704 raid on Deerfield , Massachusetts . The embassy was a success , and Dudley permitted Vetch to make a trading voyage to New France in 1705 . He was spotted upon his return , and the outcry compelled Dudley to have him put on trial and convicted in 1706 for trading with the enemy . He then sailed to England in order to appeal his conviction , and to lobby for military action against New France . Using his knowledge of New France , Vetch proposed to Queen Anne the conquest of all of New France . His proposals included the deportation of the Acadian people to the West Indies so that Nova Scotia could be peopled by Protestant settlers . With the support of political allies and sympathetic colonial governors , the queen gave Vetch a military commission and promised him a governorship and military support for the 1709 campaign season . Along with Francis Nicholson , Vetch travelled to Boston in 1709 to raise colonial militia and supplies . However , the promised military force never arrived ( having been diverted to the European theater of the War of the Spanish Succession ) , and the effort collapsed . Nicholson immediately returned to London , and secured a new promise of support for 1710 . Governor of Nova Scotia . The 1710 expedition succeeded in capturing the Acadian capital of Port Royal , although little of the surrounding countryside was pacified . Vetch was named the first governor of Nova Scotia , and the town was renamed Annapolis Royal in honour of the queen . The garrison that was left there was woefully undersupplied , and Vetch apparently funded at least some of its expenses , although he did get some official assistance from Massachusetts . However , some of his underlings also complained that he was grossly mismanaging the affairs of the colony . Nicholson capitalized on these complaints to have himself appointed governor in Vetch ' s place in 1713 . Later years . Vetch then returned to England to recover his reputation and his lost funds . With the accession of George I to the throne , he succeeded , and was reappointed governor in 1715 . However , he never returned to North America , as he was called on to advise on matters of North American trade and politics . He was formally replaced as governor in 1717 by Richard Philipps , and spent his remaining years in unsuccessful attempts to recoup his expenses and acquire other colonial postings . He died in King ' s Bench Prison , where he had been sent because of his debts , in 1732 . He was buried at St . George ' s in Southwark . Vetch ' s daughter Alida married Stephen Bayard , scion of another prominent New York family . There is a memorial plaque to Vetch at the Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal .