1761 in Canada

Template:Short description Template:Refimprove Template:Year in Canada Template:History of Canada Events from the year 1761 in Canada.

Incumbents

• French Monarch: Louis XV<ref>Guéganic (2008), p. 13.</ref>
• British and Irish Monarch: George III<ref name="rh">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Governors

• Governor of the Province of Quebec: Jeffery Amherst
• Colonial Governor of Louisiana: Louis Billouart
• Governor of Nova Scotia: Jonathan Belcher
• Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland: Richard Edwards

Events

• Wednesday July 29 – The British terms of peace are so hard that Choiseul declares: "I am as indifferent to peace as Pitt can be. I freely admit the King's desire for peace, and his Majesty may sign such a treaty, but my hand shall never be set to it."
• Tuesday October 6 – King George III offers Pitt the governorship of Canada, with £5,000 per annum, but, instead, makes Pitt's wife, Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham, a peeress; and £13,000 per annum is granted to the survivor of three of his family.
• Canada under Martial law.

Births

• August 1 : Pierre-Louis Panet, notary and politician

Deaths

• November 15
  • Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye, French Canadian fur trader and explorer (born 1717)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• • Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne, explorer (born 1703)

Historical documents

French court accuses British of starting war over borders of Acadia and Canada (with conflict extending to fighting on four continents)<ref>An Historical Memorial of the Negotiation of France and England [from March 26 to September 20, 1761] (translation; 1761), pgs. 4 and 7 Accessed 22 March 2022</ref>

Britain refuses to cede Cape Breton to France (even with pledge of no fortifications), but agrees conditionally to allow French fishing<ref>"The answer from England arrived the 30th June" An Historical Memorial of the Negotiation of France and England [from March 26 to September 20, 1761] (translation; 1761), pg. 43. (See France's proposal to give up Canada but keep Cape Breton, and Britain's agreement to allow unfortified French port in Gulf of St. Lawrence; see also breakdown of 1761 negotiations, and "the most material Variations" between failed 1761 proposals and agreed 1762 proposals) Accessed 22 March 2022</ref>

French policy on ceding American possessions to Britain should consider not colony size, but economic and strategic advantages<ref>"Memoir on the Boundaries of Louisiana" (French with English translation; August 10, 1761), in Anglo-French Boundary Disputes in the West, 1749-1763, French Series, Volume II, Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Volume XXVII (1936), pgs. 344-51, 57-8. Accessed 18 March 2022</ref>

Populating Canada will only drain other British colonies, which should be consolidated by "becoming more populous, and [thus] compact"<ref>"The compact figure of France" An Enquiry into the Value of Canada and Guadaloupe: in answer to a late pamphlet ... called, The interest of Great Britain consider'd with regard to her colonies, and the acquisitions of Canada and Guadaloupe (1761), pgs. 38-9. (See also opinion that France must give up all North America because "Canada produces nothing that can ever possibly make a colony flourishing") Accessed 21 March 2022</ref>

Advice of Waybukcumigut, "chief and captain" of Mississaugas, in essay on improving relations with Indigenous people (Note: "savages" used)<ref>(Text in italics) The Importance of Canada Considered (1761), pgs. 32-4. (See also "the disposition of the Indians, and their method of making war" Accessed 22 March 2022</ref>

British ordered not to provoke Canadians on their loss, nor their "language, dress, Manners, Customs, or Country," nor their "mistaken Religion"<ref>Letter of Charles Wyndham, Earl of Egremont, to Jeffery Amherst (excerpt; December 12, 1761). Accessed 25 March 2022</ref>

British map entire St. Lawrence River above L'Isle-aux-Coudres in detail (Indigenous and settler towns and fields, woods and swamps etc.)<ref>Plan of Canada or the province of Quebec from the uppermost settlements to the island of Coudre(…) (1761–3). (See Flickr gallery of map's sections) Accessed 21 March 2022</ref>

Prints depict damaged and destroyed buildings in Quebec City<ref>Richard Short, "View of the Cathedral, Jesuits College, and Recollect Friars Church" "A View of the Treasury and Jesuits College" "A View of the Inside of the Jesuits Church" "A View of the Bishop's House with the Ruins as they appear in going down the Hill From the Upper to the Lower Town" (1761), McCord Museum. Accessed 23 March 2022</ref>

Canada is cold because winds passing over snow are full of "nitrous particles," and there are too few "sulphurous exhalations" as little land is tilled<ref>"It is not very difficult to assign the causes of this cold" An Enquiry into the Value of Canada and Guadaloupe[....] (1761), pg. 34. Accessed 21 March 2022</ref>

Nova Scotia Council rejects Gen. Amherst's "recommending the Continuation of the French Accadians" that royal order and provincial assembly forbid<ref>Council meeting (February 20, 1761), Nova Scotia Documents; Acadian French, pgs. 314-18. Accessed 23 March 2022</ref>

"Extremely necessary that the inhabitants should be assisted by the Acadians" to repair dykes and recover marsh lands in Nova Scotia<ref>Letter of Pres. Belcher (Govrs. Letter Book; June 18, 1761), Nova Scotia Documents; Acadian French, pgs. 319-20. Accessed 23 March 2022</ref>

Commodore Lord Colville reports that Acadians of "Bays of Vert, Miramichi, Chaleurs and Gaspey" have surrendered and their vessels are destroyed<ref>Dispatch of Lord Colville (November 26, 1761), "The Recapture of Saint John’s, Newfoundland; Dispatches of Rear-Admiral, Lord Colville, 1761-1762," Occasional Paper Number Six, Maritime Museum of Canada (1959). Accessed 21 March 2022 http://ngb.chebucto.org/Articles/colville-1762.shtml (scroll down to "Northumberland at Halifax, 26th Nov. 1761"; see also details of attack and residents taken prisoner)</ref>

Trader's work in Chaleur Bay ends when Acadians expelled, who (like Mi'kmaq) take him to Chignecto after his ship deserts him (Note: "savages" used)<ref>Gamaliel Smethurst, A Narrative of an Extraordinary Escape Out of the Hands of the Indians(....) (1774). Accessed 14 July 2022</ref>

Vessels arriving at Halifax with "any Plague, Small-Pox, Malignant Fever, or other contagious Distemper" must quarantine two miles below town<ref>"An Act to prevent the spreading of contagious Distempers" (1761), 1 George III - Chapter 6, British North American Legislative Database, 1758-1867. Accessed 21 March 2022</ref>

With clearing of land in Nova Scotia comes risk of forest fire, and grand juries at county quarter sessions are to develop prevention regulations<ref>"An Act for preventing Damages by unseasonable burning, or firing of the Woods" (1761), 1 George III - Chapter 5, British North American Legislative Database, 1758-1867. Accessed 21 March 2022</ref>

Economy of French fishery on Newfoundland includes trade with Labrador "Esquameau," whaling, and timber for shipbuilding<ref>T. Cole, "The French (by means of their Fishery" "The State of the Newfoundland Fishery, with a Plan [of] the 12th of May, 1761, to exclude the French from that Trade," in An Account of the Island of Newfoundland[....] (1765), pg. 31. Accessed 23 March 2022</ref>

Alexander Henry's canoe brigade journey begins at Sainte-Anne, where his men go to confession and later receive 8 gallons of rum each<ref>Alexander Henry, "In a short time, we reached(...)Saint-Anne" Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories[....] (1809), pg. 16. (See also voyageurs' method of portaging cargo) Accessed 24 March 2022</ref>

Warned repeatedly that, being English, he would be killed at Michilimackinac, Henry dons voyageurs clothing and wields paddle when anyone passes<ref>Alexander Henry, "The hostility of the Indians" Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories[....] (1809), pgs. 34-5. (See Henry's welcome by Ojibwe chief Minavavana, and "A Plan of the Straits of St. Mary, and Michilimakinac, to shew the Situation & Importance of the two Westernmost Settlements of Canada for the Fur Trade") Accessed 24 March 2022</ref>

Voyageurs eat mashed maize on canoe trips, but for over-wintering, Henry finds high grain and meat prices make him "very industrious in fishing"<ref>Alexander Henry, "Trout are taken" Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories[....] (1809), pgs. 53-5. Accessed 24 March 2022</ref>