By: Kelsey Whynot

The Story of Charles Baker and the New England

Planters

New England Planters were people who had come from New England which is located in the United States and covers Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, most of Massachusetts, most of Connecticut and all of Rhode Island. *

Who were the New England Planters?

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These people were people of middle status that had come from good homes and there had been families with very rich backgrounds as well.

They were people looking to make money and escape the growing problem happening in New England at the time.

Who were the New England Planters?

The New England Planters had arrived in Nova Scotia around 1765-1770.

They stayed for quite some time and had helped Nova Scotia with its falling economy due to the deportation of the Acadians that had begun in 1755.

Nova Scotia even had to ask for help from the British government at the time due to such an influx of the New England Planters because the Nova Scotia economy needed a bit of a boost to keep them going.

When did the Planters arrive?

It is written that the Planters arrived because of the major population increase that happened in the late 1760’s.

Within a century Connecticut's population which was 800 in 1637 had grown to 38,000 people. By 1760 it had grown to 141,000.

There had been huge spans of migration at this time from other states that were also in the United States.

Why did the Planters arrive?

With such an influx of people coming from different places and all of these people needing to farm and sustain life, much of the arable land had started to diminish.

Many people emigrated to Nova Scotia to find new land to grow crops on or to own land that they could sell to up coming New Englanders.

Why did the Planters arrive?

There had been men chosen from New England to survey and sell the land to settlers who would use the Nova Scotia land for business and better the economy.

One of these surveyors who was the Surveyor General known as Charles Morris is part of the Charles Baker Story.

Charles Morris accompanied people on their trips and showed them to land to which they could settle.

Surveyors

Charles Baker was born into the family of William Baker and Susannah Rice in Virginia on October 5th, 1743.

It is known that he had been educated as a child at home by his father who was known to have been well taught in English studies.

He may have attended the college of New Jersey for some time in his older years as well.

He lived with his family in Pennsylvania in 1756 and then moved in that year to Carlisle due to an association with the French-Indian Wars happening at the time.

Charles Baker’s Story

Charles Baker’s Story (The French-Indian Raids)A: Fort Duquesne Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA, United States B: Carlisle, PA, United States

Charles Baker’s family had moved to Carlisle because Major-General Edward Braddock’s army had been defeated at Fort Duquesne, Pittsburgh, which is where the family had been living.

The Indian Raids increased because of this defeat so families moved away from the fighting and harsh environment.

Why the move?

The French Indian raids that happened in 1758 in the Ohio Valley were known as the height of the French Indian Wars.

The events that Charles Baker was involved in, in association with the French Indian Raids, were over shadowed by the other fights that were happening due to the Seven Years War in North America that were also happening at this time.

They included the Ticonderoga campaign and the taking of Louisbourg.

French Indian Raids

Many of the young men during this time were forced to be enrolled to fight along with the French and a man by the name of Brigadier-General John Forbes.

The armies created forts and tried to push the native cultures out and win more land.

Charles Baker was entered in to help build roads for Brigadier-General John Forbes and his army. Forbes planned to build a road through the mountains and attack Fort Duquesne to gain it back.

French Indian Raids

Charles Baker’s father had also been involved in the army and this had intrigued Charles to enroll and take part himself.

The fight at Fort Duquesne was a struggle and involved a good amount of men.

Forbes’ men had been attacked hard by the collection of French Canadian Militia and allied Indians.

Forbes’ army was able to put up a fight, even with a smaller amount of soldiers, by attacking the English Encampment at Fort Ligonier about 50 miles away.

French Indian Raids

After the war, Charles lived out the rest of his childhood and then found the love of his life, Ann Barron who was the daughter of Captain Edward Barron.

It is mentioned that this woman may have been the reason that Charles Baker ended up in Nova Scotia.

This is because her family had moved to the Chignecto Isthmus, where her father had received a grant of land, and Charles followed.

Charles and his wife had married in c.1770 at Fort Cumberland near Sackville, New Brunswick.

Charles Baker’s Story

When Charles had arrived in the Chignecto region, he became a deputy surveyor and had two bosses.

First was Captain John Huston who he left because he forced him to make boundary adjustments he knew to be incorrect.

His second boss was General Charles Morris who was who he reported to from then on.

Charles was also an office holder, and a judge.

Charles Baker’s Story

Charles Baker was known as a Justice of the Peace and at this time these men were judicial officers who could perform a number of judicial duties within the province of Nova Scotia.

These duties consisted of; administering oaths, conducting trials, performing weddings, and many more.

In the following letters there is an account of Charles having to perform a judicial duty by helping a man who believed his house had been broken into.

Charles Baker’s Story (Justice of the Peace)

These are two documents that show how Charles Baker was involved in being the Justice of the peace and a land owner.

1805

1786

These next two letters demonstrate the relationship between Charles Baker and Charles Morris and Charles Baker’s job as a surveyor.

1783

1784

These four drawings were found in a book belonging to someone in the Baker family.

A little bit about Charles Morris: Born in BostonAround during the time of the Battle of Grande

Pre in Nova ScotiaHe was a Surveyor General who accompanied

people when they first arrived to Nova Scotia and showed them their choices of lands.

He was also a judge in 1777Had sons to follow in his foot steps with the

same name

Charles Baker’s Story

Charles Baker had also made a family with Ann, he had seven children by the names of Edward, William, Charles, Ann/Nancy, John, Hance and Charlotte.

Of the first three sons, they had followed their father’s foot steps in either being a land surveyor or having a job within the government.

Charles Baker’s Story

Charles had also been involved in settling a lot of the loyalists that had arrived in Nova Scotia.

He had lands in mostly the Amherst Township of Cumberland County.

He had also been known to donate land for the local Anglican Church.

Charles Baker’s Story

When Charles and Ann had become too old to keep after the land, the land was given to William to look after.

Charles died on February 10th 1835 in Amherst, Nova Scotia.

His obituary in the Novascotian, or Colonial Herald included writings that described him as, “a firm magistrate , [and] an honest and faithful public servant”. He was described as having a very good personality as well.

Charles Baker’s Story

Blakeley, Phyllis R. . "Biography – BAKER, CHARLES – Volume VI (1821-1835) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography." Home – Dictionary of Canadian Biography. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/baker_charles_6E.html (accessed October 5, 2013).

Bristed, John. The resources of the United States of America, or, A view of the agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, financial, political, literary, moral and religious capacity and character of the American people. New York: J. Eastburn & Co., 1818.

Chartrand, Rene. Tomahawk and Musket - French and Indian Raids in the Ohio Valley 1758. United Kingdom : Osprey Publishing , 2012.

Esther Clark Wright Archives, Acadia University. Charles Baker family fonds. 2012.

References

Hornsby, Stephen, and John G. Reid. New England and the Maritime provinces connections and comparisons. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005.

Longley, R.S.. The Coming of the New England Planters to the Annapolis Valley. Department of History, Acadia University, 1929-64. http://journals.hil.unb.ca/static_content/ACAD/acadpress/theyplantedwell/014-028Longley.pdf (accessed November 25, 2013).

Landry, Peter. "Historical Biographies, Nova Scotia: Charles Morris (1711-81).." Blupete. http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1700-63/Morris.htm (accessed October 5, 2013).

Robicheau, Wendy G. , and T. Stephen Henderson. The Nova Scotia Planters in the Atlantic World 1759-1830. No. 5 Planter Studies ed. Fredericton, N.B. Canada : Acadiensis Press, University of New Brunswick, 2010.

"Site Sections." Justice of the Peace. http://novascotia.ca/just/Court_Services/peace.asp (accessed December 1, 2013).