A new steeple and an addition of 16 feet to the northern end was added to old St. Paul's Church this year, at the cost of £1000, granted by Government, £500 from a fund known as the Militia Arms Fund, and the remainder from funds arising out of the forfeited estate of one Jonathan Clarke. Hibbert N. Binney and H. H. Cogswell were the churchwardens. Their advertizement for tenders for the work appears in the Gazette. The sum of £500 from the Arms Fund was at the same time granted to St. George's Church towards finishing the interior of that building. These works were commenced this year, but were not finished until late in 1812. But one capital criminal conviction is recorded in 1811, that of one Sarah Wilson for burglary. She was sentenced to death, but afterwards reprieved.
On the 27th May the sloop of war, Little Belt, Capt. Bingham, arrived from a cruise. She reported having fallen in with the United States frigate, President, by whom she was fired into, and had sixteen men killed and twenty-one wounded, and the rigging of the ship much cut up. The two nations being at peace at the time, the affair caused much excitement in Halifax. Explanations were offered on the part of the Captain and Officers of the U. S. frigate, which only tended to show the bitterness of feeling which shortly afterwards manifested itself in open hostilities. Early this season non-intercourse was established between the United States and Great Britain.
Sir George Provost was now appointed to the chief command in Canada. The inhabitants of Halifax presented a congratulatory address on his promotion on the 19th August. He sailed for Quebec on the 25th, and Sir John Cope Sherbroke, his successor, arrived with his family from England on 16th October following in the ship Manilla.
On 26th September a poll was opened by Capt. Jones Fawson, then Sheriff, for the election of two members for the town and four for the county. John Pryor, John Geo. Pyke and William H. Taylor were nominated; the latter retired and the two first were declared elected. The four old members for the county were returned. Mr. William Sabatier was nominated but afterwards retired from the contest.
The merchants of Halifax, on 20th July, petitioned the Governor respecting the state of trade, etc., stating that they were agreed to take gold and silver coins at the following values, viz: A Guinea, £1 3 4, Halifax currency; a Johannes, at £4; a Doubloon, at £3 17 6; an Eagle, at £2 10; the old French Guinea, at £1 2, and all the other decimal parts of the same coins at a proportional value; English and old French Crowns, at 5s. 6d; Spanish Dollars, (including those which heretofore passed current at 4s.) at the rate of 5s. At this time British silver was unknown at Halifax—Spanish silver was the current coin. It came up from the West Indies and Spanish America in the course of trade, and the British Government found it more convenient for various reasons to pay their troops stationed here in Spanish silver than to import British coin for that purpose.
The names attached to this petition were William Bowie, Garret Miller, Starr & Shannon, Charles Loveland, Moody & Sinclair, Alexander McDonald, William A. Black, Martin Gay Black, John Albro, Charles Boggs, Henry Ford & Co., Henry Austin, Michael Forrestall, Jonathan and John Tremaine, John W. Pyke, Matthew Richardson, Richard Tremain, Samuel Head, M. D., Kidston, Dobson & Telford, H. Taylor, John Liddell & Co., Capel Hines, Jas. Ewing, George W. Mitchell, Prescott Lawson & Co., James Fraser, Winkworth Allen, Smith & Thom, Scaiffe & Baine, R. Lyon, Sr., Andrew Belcher, Forsyth, Black & Co., Lawrence Hartshorne, Charles Hill, Forman Grassie & Co., John Lawson, James Leaver, William Minns, John Osborne and John Owen.
A proposition concerning some alteration in Water Street, near the Ordnance Yard, was made by Captain Gustavos Nichols of the Royal Engineers. It was understood that the town would not agree to the proposal unless the Military authorities surrendered a road in continuation of Hollis Street, southward. The subject had been mooted for a long period previous to this time, but no arrangement could be agreed on between the military and the town authorities. Captain Nichols' letter makes an offer according to the plans therein enclosed. This letter and plans are not now forthcoming among the City or Provincial Records, and therefore the particulars of the proposition made by the Engineer Department cannot now be understood. Copies of these plans may possibly exist at the Lumber Yard and Engineers' office.
On the 17th March, the Irish Society celebrated the anniversary of St. Patrick this year by a dinner at Mason Hall, which was attended by the Governor, General Balfour, Commissioner Inglefield, Judge Croke, the Captains of the Navy in port and the Staff of the Garrison, etc. The Hon. Charles Morris was President, and Samuel Hood George, afterwards Sir Samuel, was Vice. The dinner was at five o'clock, the fashionable hour in those days. The Governor and principal guests retired at nine. The rest of the company sat late, but the utmost harmony and good feeling prevailed. These national festivals were better attended in those days, when no political animosities existed to disturb the harmony of the good people of Halifax.
On the 11th May, there was a public examination of the Halifax Grammar School under old parson Wright—a ceremony in which the inhabitants at this period took much interest. On this occasion Mr. Edward Monk, son of Judge Monk, took the first prize; Lewis M. Wilkins, the late Judge, won the second, and the third was given to James Bailey, and the fourth to Edward Fairbanks, a brother of S. P. Fairbanks, Esq., and of the late Judge Charles R. Fairbanks, Master of the Rolls.
A Company was formed this year, in Halifax, for prosecuting the codfishery. The managers were John Lawson, Henry H. Cogswell, William Pryor, Garret Miller, John Brown, John William Morris and Charles Loveland. A large capital was raised in shares of £50 each.