Skip to main content
FILE — Box: 1, Folder: 3 Identifier: HUM 314

Letter Book, Vol. I, 1770 April 25-1771 June 29 Digital

Scope and Contents

Contains copies of letters from Caleb Gannett to family members, friends, other ministers, merchants, and politicians, dated April 25, 1770-June 29, 1771, written while he was a minister in Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia. There is an index to names on the last page, and a loose note fragment in several hands laid in to the volume.

Correspondents include Boston merchant Henry Bass (1739-1813), Reverend Ebenezer Gay (1696-1787; Harvard AB 1714), his sons, Nova Scotia politician Jotham Gay (1733-1802), and Boston merchant Martin Gay, Boston minister Simeon Howard (1733-1804; Harvard AB 1758, AM 1761), Norwich, Connecticut, minister Benjamin Lord (1694-1784), Josiah Keen of Pembroke, Boston publishers Mein and Fleeming, Ipswich minister Samuel Perley (1742-1831; Harvard AB 1763), merchant William Allan of Fort Cumberland, and Malachy Salter (1715-1781), merchant and Halifax representative to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.

Additional names include fellow Congregationalist ministers in Nova Scotia, such as John Seccombe (1708-1792; Harvard AB 1728, AM 1731), Nehemiah Porter (1720-1820; Harvard AB 1745), and Benajah Phelps.

Letters to ministers Gad Hitchcock, Sr. (1719-1803; Harvard AB 1743), and Gad Hitchcock, Jr. (1749-1836; Harvard AB 1768), discuss settlements of the New England planters in Nova Scotia and the challenges facing representatives elected to the provincial assembly, including lack of salary and the distance they were required to travel to the capital of Halifax; land grants; religious questions; and Gannett’s discontent at being isolated from intellectuals and “the seat of learning” at Harvard College.

There are also letters about professional and personal matters to his father, Joseph Gannett, Isaiah Josselyn (1742-1801), Nancy Josselyn (1736-1801), and Ruth Josselyn, Nabby Tilden, and Sally Cushing, to whom he complained about the “indiscretion and stupidity of busy bodies” who interfered in his personal life.

Other topics addressed by Gannett are farming and the weather; the dismantling of Fort Cumberland, and removal of the British soldiers to Halifax, which Gannett celebrated because he thought they encouraged vice in local residents; the arrival of merchant ships from New England; economic difficulties and trade; and his general impressions about Nova Scotia and its geography.

The bulk of the correspondence focuses on Nova Scotia politics and elected representation since its settlement by the British, land grants, and the state of dissenting Congregationalists and Presbyterians in the provice, as well as the activities of the Anglican Church and Catholic missionaries. According to Gannett, the Mi'kmaq on Cape Sable Island had taken in a priest after the expulsion of the Acadians, and lobbied the provincial government to ensure he could stay.

Gannett also writes about standing in for Reverend William Moore’s congregation in Halifax while Moore was in London, and New York’s boycott of British imports in response to the Townshend Duties.

Gannett wrote many letters about a missionary sent by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, John Eagleson, who settled in Gannett’s parish in 1771, and according to Gannett, sowed discord in the community. Eagleson, a Presbyterian, was reordained in the Church of England, and his presence in Fort Cumberland ultimately drove Gannett to leave Nova Scotia.

Dates

  • Creation: 1770 April 25-1771 June 29

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Extent

.17 cubic feet ( (1 document box))

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository

Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.

Contact:
Pusey Library
Harvard Yard
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461