1736 in Canada explained

Events from the year 1736 in Canada.

Incumbents

• French Monarch

Louis XV^[1]

• British and Irish Monarch

George II^[2]

Governors

• Governor General of New France

Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois

• Colonial Governor of Louisiana

Jean-Baptiste le Moyne de Bienville

• Governor of Nova Scotia

Lawrence Armstrong

• Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland

Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville

Events

• Father Jean-Pierre Aulneau, Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye and 19 French voyageurs were headed from Fort St. Charles to Montreal via Fort St. Pierre. On their first night out they were massacred by Sioux warriors on a nearby island in Lake of the Woods. The date was June 8.

Deaths

• March 25 - François-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, explorer and soldier (born 1700).

Full date unknown

• Christopher Dufrost de La Jemeraye died May 10 of this year. In ill health he was travelling from Fort Maurepas (Canada) on the Red River to Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods. He was buried near the junction of the Red and Rousseau rivers (born 1708).
• Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye died June 6, the eldest son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (born 1713).

Historical documents

"Cape Breton will remain a Thorn in our Sides" - With Cape Breton's troops and Acadians' numbers, French frustrate British in Nova Scotia^[3]

Two priests who reject Council orders in "a most Insolent, Audacious & Disrespectfull manner" are ordered to leave Nova Scotia^[4]

Doors of "Mass house" up Annapolis River to "be Closly Naild Up" as Council deals with another priest's alleged defiance^[5]

"A. does not know what to do" - Lt. Gov. Lawrence Armstrong frustrated that Acadians and Île-Royale governor resist banishment of two priests^[6]

Armstrong invokes treaty with Indigenous people near Cape Sable to get their help in case of murder and robbery aboard ship "Baltimore"^[7]

Armstrong summarizes evidence to date in curious case of supposed lone survivor left from ship "Baltimore," forced by bad weather into port^[8]

Armstrong updates Board of Trade on Baltimore case, suspecting lone witness is lying and that convicts on-board killed crew^[9]

When petitioned about plan to reroute rivulet landowners fear will harm them, Council advises community consultation and its own visit to site^[10]

Nova Scotia government to be set up with governor, council, courts and (with "competent number of Freemen, planters and inhabitants") assembly^[11]

Fewer French in Port-aux-Basques than thought, capital-crime witnesses still evade trip to England, and JPs are better lawmen than admirals^[12]

Priest gives general absolution to crew of French ship in fierce November storm, run aground off Anticosti Island (they get to shore)^[13]

Map: Cape Sable to Strait of Belle Isle and Gaspé to Grand Banks^[14]

George Clarke says New York can be bulwark against French by settling Kanien’kéhà:ka country with thousands of European Protestants^[15]

Clarke recommends Assembly fund new fort at "upper End of the Mohauks Country" to "cover" it and provide protective link to Oswego^[16]

Penobscot, denying French influence, insist Massachusetts governor must prevent settlement up Saint George River to preserve peace^[17]

Detailed proposal for sending two sloops from Churchill to search for passage west out of Hudson Bay and record tides, soundings etc.^[18]

Hudson's Bay Company orders ships north along Bay's western shore to establish trade and record details of land and waters^[19]

French have no claim to Canada because merely asking Indigenous people for permission to settle gives foreigners right of dominion^[20]

At Lake of the Woods, Jesuit priest describes "this wretched country" and "morally degraded" Cree (Note: racial stereotypes)^[21]

Notes and References

1. Guéganic (2008), p. 13.
2. Web site: 30 December 2015 . George I . 18 April 2016 . Official web site of the British monarchy.
3. Mr. Salmon, "Chap. VI; Of Nova Scotia or New-Scotland, and Acadie" Modern History; or, The Present State of All Nations; Describing their respective Situations[...]; Vol. XXXI, pgs. 338-42. Accessed 6 January 2021
4. https://archives.novascotia.ca/heartland/archives/?Number=Three&Page=343 "The Behavi (sic) of ye Romish Priests"
5. https://archives.novascotia.ca/heartland/archives/?Number=Three&Page=345 "In relat.n to the Mass house up the River"
6. https://archives.novascotia.ca/heartland/archives/?Number=Two&Page=110 "Armstrong to Sec. of State"
7. https://archives.novascotia.ca/heartland/archives/?Number=Two&Page=102 "Armstrong to the Chief of the Cape Sable Indians"
8. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol42/pp221-234#anchorfn1 "340 Lt. Gov. Armstrong to the Council of Trade and Plantations"
9. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol42/pp335-354 "462 Lt. Govr. Armstrong to the Council of Trade and Plantations"
10. https://archives.novascotia.ca/heartland/archives/?Number=Three&Page=331 "At a Committee of Council(...)"
11. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol42/pp181-195 "282 Proposals for the beginning of a Civil Government in Nova Scotia"
12. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol42/pp272-284 "389 Capt. Lee, Governor of Newfoundland, to the Council of Trade and Plantations"
13. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.35453/31?r=0&s=3 Letter III
14. Herman Moll, "NewFoundLand St. Laurence Bay, The Fishing Banks, Acadia, and Part of New Scotland" (ca. 1736), McCord Museum. Accessed 23 July 2021
15. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol42/pp248-256 "366 President Clarke to the Duke of Newcastle"
16. https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84024358/1736-10-11/ed-1/seq-3/ President Clarke's address to the Assembly
17. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol42/pp248-256 "365 i (...)Penobscot Indians' letter to the Governour, July 22, 1736"
18. Arthur Dobbs, "A rough Draught of my Letter to Sir Bibye Lake in April, 1736" Remarks upon Capt. Middleton's Defence (1744), pgs. 87-90. Accessed 19 July 2021
19. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_02954/44?r=0&s=3 "Number XVI; Copies of Instructions given by the Hudson's Bay Company to their Officers abroad, so far as they relate to the Discovery of a North West Passage; To Mr. Richard Norton, and Council, at Prince of Wales's Fort"
20. Mr. Salmon, "Chap. I; Of the French Colonies on the Continent of North-America" Modern History; or, The Present State of All Nations; Describing their respective Situations[...]; Vol. XXXI, pgs. 554-7. Accessed 6 January 2021
21. J.P. Aulneau, "Letter from Reverend father Aulneau, of the Society of Jesus, to Reverend Father Bonin"