Colonel Alexander McNutt about 1765 secured a grant of land at Port Razoir, and arrived from Ireland with about three hundred settlers. He called the place New Jerusalem, but Colonel McNutt seems to have been an obstreperous gentleman and his little settlement was in almost constant hot water, and within a short time boiled down to a small residuum.
In the year 1782 one hundred heads of families in New York, sympathizers with the English cause, bound themselves to settle in Nova Scotia. These were led to believe that the city which they were to establish would become the capital of the Province, and many men of wealth and position were among them. All were respectable; no family was admitted unless some member could vouch for its good reputation. Within a year four hundred and seventy heads of families had signed and on May 4, 1783, eighteen brigs and many schooners dropped anchor off New Jerusalem and landed five thousand persons.
On July 20th Governor Parr arrived at the new settlement and, having landed, proceeded up King street to the place appointed for his reception. This may have been what is now known as the “Governor’s House,” as it is said to be so called because some Governor made a speech from its steps. Here he made a short address in which he signified his intention of calling the place Shelburne. On the 23d he dined in the house of Justice Robertson with the principal inhabitants.
About September a second hegira of Loyalists arrived from New York. Many of these were undesirable characters who lowered the tone of the place greatly. Others followed, and within a short time there were sixteen thousand inhabitants settled here, nine thousand of which drew government rations. At the end of four years the government rations ceased, and as the place could not support so many, it began to dwindle. In 1798 a storm which destroyed wharves and shipping made matters worse, and by 1818 Shelburne was reduced to three hundred inhabitants.
About 1855 ship-building began to be an important industry, and the place took an upward turn. In 1864 an academy was built, but the day of the wooden ship is passing, and while Shelburne still has two small yards where fishermen are built, the town has dwindled again and is now a delightfully sleepy old place where one can lounge on a box at the smithy door or on a bit of timber near some growing fisherman and harken if he will to tales of the good old times.
On the way into Shelburne I passed a beautiful clump of goldenrod whose waiting seed vessels were as a halo in the bright sunlight, and shortly after turning the corner came upon the picturesque disorder of a shipyard framed between the stubs of willows whose aged trunks suggested that they might date back two hundred years. The scene aroused huge anticipations in the breast of the camera.
After a dinner in the Atlantic House I proceeded to ask questions of such as were gathered in the hotel office concerning the town. One of those present offered to pilot me about, and we ventured forth together. The Governor’s House is still standing on King street; the only other old house that my guide seemed to know of is the “Thompson” house. When it was built or by whom I did not learn, but it is supposed to have been erected at an early period, as the walls of the lower story are solid wood, some six or eight inches in thickness, presumably made so for defensive purposes.
Being left to my own guidance I naturally selected the waterfront, where quite soon was discovered a boat shop that was at the moment turning out dories, presumably part of the equipment of a fishing schooner, the hull of which was nearing completion in an adjoining shipyard.
The weather conditions were ideal for pictorial effects. A sky filled with damp clouds and a misty atmosphere that graduated the distance lent themselves to some beautiful and striking pictures; particularly was this so when the clouds thinned and the sun almost broke through. The east wind was very successful as a scene-shifter, rumpling the water in a gentle way while pushing the cloud masses on and off as they were needed.