Cape Breton's Magazine

The DesBarres people, the Blenheim people-- many of them settled in Sydney, because they were carpenters and like that. But some of them went farming, too. But they tended to settle over in Westmount, in Point Edward--the Lewises and the Rudder- hams, and Rudderhams, and Rudderhams, and Rudderhams. Just take a drive around there and you'll see. Most of those names that are there, even to this day--although you get a few obviously new names, the Eastern European names--generally speaking, they are descendants of the Blenheim crowd. Whereas the ones that settled on the North? west Arm are descendants of the Loyalists. And in many cases, they maintained 2 estab? lishments --one in the town, in Sydney, and one in the country. This is particularly true of the Upper Loyalists--Abraham Cuy? ler and David Matthews, who had been mayor of New York City. They lived at Point Ed? ward, in Westmount. (DesBarres had a plan, he had an idea, he was in charge of the colony. Did it go smoothly?) No. For DesBarres, it didn't go smoothly at all. Nothing in Cape Breton went smoothly. In this case what happened is, you've got a number of weaknesses that are bound to lead to trouble. You've got a Colonial Office who doesn't pay any money out. You've got people here--but the popu? lation in the immediate area of Sydney would probably number no more than 500 peo? ple, and therefore, they have very little power in England. Compared to the Loyal? ists in New Brunswick, where you have 35,000 at this time--powerful Loyalists. But our people are--there are not enough of them, they're not powerful enough. And therefore, they have very little say in the Colonial Office to try and get more money and more assistance. Moreover, the governor of Cape Breton was under the thumb, as it were, of the governor of Nova Scotia; this caused, in many cases, inter? ference in the affairs of Cape Breton. If you didn't like your lieutenant governor here in Cape Breton, you could easily cause trouble--if you were locally impor? tant like Cuyler or Matthews--by running off to the lieutenant governor in Halifax and saying, "This fellow's making an awful (And this happened to DesBarres?) Oh, it happened to DesBarres, and it happened to a number of other governors. But it hap? pened to DesBarres--very badly. DesBarres, for example, he appointed as his chief jus? tice a very good friend of his, Richard Gibbons. Gibbons was from Halifax and had not got along with the Halifax establish? ment. They'd had a number of arguments-- it's no use going into the reasons why, but there had been some terrible fights. And DesBarres appoints him chief justice of Cape Breton. Which just angers the peo? ple in Halifax to no end. And so when Mat? thews and Cuyler, particularly Cuyler, fight with DesBarres, trying to get power, and DesBarres continually crushing him and not allowing him to get power--Cuyler runs off to these people in Halifax and makes up a niamber of stories about what Des? Barres is doing, saying he's having ille? gal trade and that he's a dictator, and he's this, that, and the other thing. And they report this back to England. And to England it looks like the colony here is in chaos. (At the same time, Cape Breton has no as? sembly.) That's right. And this makes it '*-''' ''??' Give Long Distance Gift Certificates for Christmas eiodefo Gift Certificates let the people you care about stay closer to all those people they care about. Let your fannily and friends share Christmas by long distance with sonneone they miss. Give them the joy of saying, "It's so good to hear your voice again!" Give Long Distance Gift Certificates. To order, just call 1-421-5555 toll-free. Long Distance Gilt Certificates come in a set of four $5.00 certificates complete with an attractive card, At $20.00 a set they make an ideal gift * Available from any one of our ten Phone Stores, or to avoid the Christmas rush, just call 1-421-5555 toll-free. *Gift Certificates are redeemable only in Canada. CD MARITIME TEL&TEL;