On 4 May 1783, ships carrying 3,037 Loyalists from New York anchored in Port Roseway Harbour.
There were 1,686 whites with 415 servants and 936 free blacks.
The Loyalists’ arrival dramatically changed the courses of the histories of Shelburne, of Nova Scotia, of Canada, and of the Mi’kmaq first nations.

Before the Loyalist Landing at Shelburne, there were fewer than 20,000 people in Nova Scotia, which then included what is now New Brunswick. By the end of 1783, some 35,000 Loyalists had arrived in Nova Scotia. The government in Halifax could not cope with the influx.
In 1784, Britain granted the petitions of the Loyalists’ settlements along the St. John River to form a new colony, New Brunswick to better manage and administer their affairs. In 1791, the Loyalists’ partitions in Québec led to the creation of what became Ontario.
In 1867, the four colonies of Québec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia united to form Canada, the first self-governing Dominion in what was then the British Empire.

On 22 July 1783, John Parr, the Governor of the Colony of Nova Scotia, changed the name “Port Roseway” to “Shelburne” after Lord Shelburne who was Secretary of State for the colonies and British negotiator for the Treaty of Paris in 1783.  For a very short time in July 1782, Lord Shelburne was Prime Minister, but there were too many factions and his group was too weak to control Parliament.

In late August 1783, 500 free blacks who had fought for the British under the leadership of Colonel Stephan Blucke arrived in Shelburne. They were allocated land on the northwest side of the harbour that was originally considered but rejected by the first arrivals.
Led by the Colonel, they marched to the site and founded Birchtown, named to honour Colonel Samuel Birch who, as Governor of New York, had provided them with certificates of freedom and who had strongly resisted American efforts to re-enslave them.

By 1784, Shelburne’s population grew to about 10,000, making it more than twice the size of Halifax, and the largest town in British North America.
Birchtown, with about 2,500 people, was the largest settlement of free blacks in North America.

Nearly all of the Loyalists who came and originally stayed in the Shelburne and Birchtown area left after a few years. For the most part, the whites returned to the United States, as the individual states gradually became amenable to restoring the Loyalists’ lost voting and property rights - sometimes even providing compensation for confiscated property.
For the most part the blacks, bitterly disappointed with the government’s blatantly discriminatory treatment of them, left in early 1792 to found Sierra Leone, the first British colony in Africa.

Not all the Loyalists left. Today, Shelburne County has a population of almost 16,000 people, about 2,000 of whom live in the area of Shelburne and Birchtown. Many claim Loyalist roots and Shelburne boasts numerous surviving Loyalist buildings and homes.
Rightly, both Shelburne and Birchtown are very proud of their Loyalist heritage with the websites of, and the highway signs to, both towns prominently noting their Loyalist origins.

The LL08 celebrations will fittingly and appropriately focus on renewing and strengthening Shelburne’s and Birchtown’s associations with, and links to, a proud Loyalist heritage, and in their sharing that Loyalist legacy with Shelburne County expatriates, southern Nova Scotia residents and those “from away”.

For a full history we'd like to recommend many websites like the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada, a supporter of our celebration. Also the local Historical Society which operates the Museums in the Historic Waterfront district and the Archives and Genealogical Society. If you can find a copy of Marion Robertson's book King's Bounty we can recommend it as not only easy to read but an excellent source for the founding of Port Roseway now Shelburne.

 

Loyalist History.

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