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Thomas Caulfeild (often also spelled Caulfield, baptized 26 March 1685 – 2 March 1716/7) was an early British Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. Due to the frequent absence of governors Samuel Vetch and Francis Nicholson, Caulfeild often acted as governor for extended periods between 1711 and his death.
Caulfeild was born to an English family in Ireland. He was the younger son of William Caulfeild, 2nd Viscount Charlemont and the daughter of the Archbishop of Armagh. He entered the military, serving in Spain during the early years of the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1710, his regiment was sent to North America, where he took part in Francis Nicholson's successful expedition against Port-Royal, the capital of French Acadia. The next year he served in Admiral Hovenden Walker's disastrous expedition to Quebec. He impressed General John Hill, the commander of the expedition's land forces, and was appointed by Hill to command the garrison at Annapolis Royal (as Port-Royal had been renamed) and serve as deputy to Governor Samuel Vetch.
Caulfeild was formally commissioned as Nova Scotia's lieutenant governor in October 1712. Vetch was absent from the province between October 1711 and June 1712, during which time Caulfeild was acting governor. Nicholson was also commissioned governor in October 1712, but his commission did not arrive in North America until 1713. In October of that year Nicholson, who was in Boston performing other duties, directed Caulfeild to assume command. Nicholson was absent during most of his time as governor, only briefly visiting the province in 1714. In 1715 Nicholson was replaced as governor by Vetch, but Vetch never came to the province again. Caulfeild governed the province in Vetch's absence until his (Caulfeild's) death in early 1717.
While acting as governor, Caulfeild was involved in several attempts to obtain oaths of allegiance to the British Crown from the Acadian French. He was unsuccessful in this endeavour, although he did obtain statements of neutrality from them upon the accession of King George I. Caulfeild incurred significant personal debts in maintaining the garrison at Annapolis Royal, and was highly critical of actions by Nicholson that he saw as divisive during Nicholson's brief stay in the province.
General Sir William Fenwick Williams, 1st Baronet was a Nova Scotian military leader for the British during the Victorian era.
Events from the year 1710 in Canada.
Annapolis Royal is a town in and the county seat of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The community was called Port Royal before 1710 and is known for having one of the longest histories in North America, pre-dating settlements at Plymouth, Jamestown and Quebec. It was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for almost 150 years, until the founding of Halifax in 1749.
Fort Anne is a historic fort protecting the harbour of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. It was built by Scottish settlers in August 1629 as Charles Fort. For the first 120 years of the fort's active period, the settlement of Port Royal / Annapolis Royal was the capital of the New France colony of Acadia and British North America colony of Nova Scotia. In 1917, Fort Anne became the first National Historic Site of Canada. Although no longer in active service, it is the oldest extant fort in Canada. Fort Anne has provided more defensive service than any other fort in North America, having been attacked and blockaded at least 19 times over a service period of 225 years, from the Acadian Civil War through to the American Revolutionary War. The fort also contains the oldest military building in Canada and the oldest building administered by Parks Canada, the 1708 powder magazine.
Lieutenant-General Francis Nicholson was a British Army general and colonial official who served as the governor of South Carolina from 1721 to 1725. He previously was the Governor of Nova Scotia from 1712 to 1715, the Governor of Virginia from 1698 to 1705, the Governor of Maryland from 1694 to 1698, the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1690 to 1692, and the Lieutenant Governor of the Dominion of New England from 1688 to 1689.
Samuel Vetch was a Scottish soldier and colonial governor of Nova Scotia. He was a leading figure in the Darien scheme, a failed Scottish attempt to colonise the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s. During the War of the Spanish Succession he was an early proponent of the idea that Great Britain should take New France, proposing in 1708 that it be conquered and that the residents of Acadia be deported. He was the grandfather of Samuel Bayard.
General Richard Philipps was said to have been in the employ of William III as a young man and for his service gained the rank of captain in the British army. He served at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1712.
William Tailer was a military officer and politician in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Born into the wealthy and influential Stoughton family, he twice married into other politically powerful families. He served as lieutenant governor of the province from 1711 until 1716, and again in the early 1730s. During each of these times he was briefly acting governor. He was a political opponent of Governor Joseph Dudley, and was a supporter of a land bank proposal intended to address the province's currency problems. During his first tenure as acting governor he authorized the erection of Boston Light, the earliest lighthouse in what is now the United States.
Lawrence Armstrong was a lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia and acted as a replacement for the governor, Richard Philipps, during his long absences from the colony.
Jean-Paul Mascarene was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as commander of the 40th Regiment of Foot and governor of Nova Scotia from 1740 to 1749. During this period, he led the colony through King George's War with the French, and rose to the rank of Major-general. He is best known for repulsing two French attempts to capture Annapolis Royal in 1744 and 1745.
The Quebec expedition, or the Walker expedition to Quebec, was a British attempt to attack Quebec in 1711 in Queen Anne's War, the North American theatre of the War of Spanish Succession. It failed when seven transports and one storeship were wrecked and some 850 soldiers drowned in one of the worst naval disasters in British history.
The Battle of Bloody Creek was fought on 10/21 June 1711 during Queen Anne's War. An Abenaki militia successfully ambushed British soldiers at a place that became known as Bloody Creek after the battles fought there. The creek empties into the Annapolis River at present day Carleton Corner, Nova Scotia, and was also the location of a battle in 1757.
The Raid on Canso was an attack by French forces from Louisbourg on the British outpost Fort William Augustus at Canso, Nova Scotia shortly after war declarations opened King George's War. The French raid was intended to boost morale, secure Louisbourg's supply lines with the surrounding Acadian settlements, and deprive Britain of a base from which to attack Louisbourg. There were 50 English families in the settlement. While the settlement was utterly destroyed, the objective failed, since the British launched an attack on Louisbourg in 1745, using Canso as a staging area.
Wilmot is an unincorporated community located in Annapolis County in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
The siege of Port Royal in 1707 included two separate attempts by English colonists from New England to conquer Acadia by capturing its capital Port Royal during Queen Anne's War. Both attempts were made by colonial militia, and were led by men inexperienced in siege warfare. Led by Acadian Governor Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, the French troops at Port Royal easily withstood both attempts, assisted by irregular Acadians and the Wabanaki Confederacy outside the fort.
The siege of Port Royal, also known as the Conquest of Acadia, was a military siege conducted by British regular and provincial forces under the command of Francis Nicholson against a French Acadian garrison and the Wabanaki Confederacy under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, at the Acadian capital, Port Royal. The successful British siege marked the beginning of permanent British control over the peninsular portion of Acadia, which they renamed Nova Scotia, and it was the first time the British took and held a French colonial possession. After the French surrender, the British occupied the fort in the capital with all the pomp and ceremony of having captured one of the great fortresses of Europe, and renamed it Annapolis Royal.
Events from the year 1715 in Canada.
Port Royal (1605–1713) was a historic settlement based around the upper Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia, Canada, and the predecessor of the modern town of Annapolis Royal. It was the first successful attempt by Europeans to establish a permanent settlement in what is today known as Canada. Port Royal was a key step in the development of New France and was the first permanent base of operations of the explorer Samuel de Champlain who would later found Quebec in 1608 and the farmer Louis Hébert, who would resettle at Quebec in 1617. For most of its existence, it was the capital of the New France colony of Acadia.
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Vetch Bayard was a Loyalist military officer in the American Revolution who served in the King's Orange Rangers (KOR). He is the son of William Bayard who founded the KOR. He was the great-grandson of Governor Samuel Vetch and was the father of Robert Bayard.
Sir Charles Hobby (1665–1715) was a Boston merchant and militia colonel, commanding a provincial regiment during the siege of Port Royal 1710, and serving as its acting governor in 1711. He was knighted in 1705.