FORT HOWE IN 1781
Lieut.-Governor Arbuthnot wrote to the Secretary of State, Lord George Germaine, on the 11th October, 1777, that in consequence of frequent attacks on the settlements on the St. John river by the Machias rebels he had requested Brig.-Gen. Massey to establish a fortified post at the mouth of that river with a garrison of fifty men; this with the aid of a British frigate he thought would secure the inhabitants from further molestation, and prevent the Americans from occupying the post, an object they had long coveted. In the latter part of November, Brigade Major Studholme was sent to St. John with fifty picked men, a framed block-house and four six-pounders. The small force was brought in a sloop of war, which remained in the harbor for their protection till the next spring.
Studholme at first thought of restoring Fort Frederick, which the rebels had burned the year before, but in the end it was decided to erect a new fortification on the commanding site since known as Fort Howe. The lateness of the season rendered it necessary for the garrison to lose no time. They set to work vigorously 279 and with the assistance of the inhabitants erected the blockhouses, threw up the necessary defences, and were in snug winter quarters ere the cold weather set in.
The accompanying illustration is taken from a sketch of Fort Howe in 1781 by Capt. Benjamin Marston on board his vessel the “Brittania”, which was then lying at anchor in the harbor; the original is believed to be the only representation of Fort Howe before the arrival of the Loyalists that is in existence.
Colonel Robert Morse of the Royal Engineers thus describes the fort as he saw it in 1783:—
“This little work was erected in the course of the late war in preference to repairing a small square fort thrown up during the former war [Fort Frederick] the position of the latter being low and commanded, and not so well situated for the protection of the houses built in the cod of the bay, where two or three persons lived of a company to whom a large tract of land had been granted and who carried on a considerable trade with the Indians and persons settled up the river. The ridge upon which the new fort stands was offered by them and a work in which there are eight pieces of cannon, barracks for 100 men, and a small block-house was accordingly erected, together with a larger block-house at the other end of the ridge. The block-houses remain, but the work, which was composed of fascines and sods, is falling down, and the ridge on which it stands is too narrow to admit of any useful works being constructed upon it.”
The armament of Fort Howe, according to Col. Morse, consisted of 2 five and a half inch brass mortars, and 8 iron guns; the latter comprising 2 eighteen-pounders, 4 six-pounders, and 2 four-pounders. In the barracks were twelve rooms for the officers and accommodation for 100 men.
The guns of Fort Howe would be no better than pop-guns in modern warfare. Indeed they appear never to have been fired upon an invader. On Royal anniversaries and in honor of national victories they thundered forth a salute from their iron throats, and we may believe that on the ever memorable 18th of May, 1783, they gave a right royal welcome to the Loyalist founders of the City of St. John.
Scarcely had Major Studholme got his defences in order at Fort Howe, when the old Machias pirate, A. Greene Crabtree, reappeared upon the scene. He had disposed of his former booty and returned to complete the work of destruction. In order to accomplish his design he landed a party from his eight-gun vessel at Manawagonish, and proceeded through the woods intending to surprise the settlement at Portland Point; but in this case the surprise was his own. The sight of the British flag waving from the ramparts of Fort Howe was quite sufficient; he showed no inclination to try the mettle of Studholme’s garrison, and beat a hasty retreat.
General Massey, who had sent Studholme’s party to St. John, was of the opinion that a rigorous policy should be set on foot against the privateers, and in a letter to Lord Germaine laments that Arbuthnot did not command the naval squadron. “If he did,” he says, “these trifling pirates could not appear on the coast without meeting their deserved fate.” In the course of the next summer Captain Fielding succeeded in destroying six privateers in the space of three weeks time, and this served to render the Bay of Fundy coast a little more secure. But 280 already much damage had been inflicted. In the township of Conway, on the west side of St. John harbor, the settlers had been obliged to abandon their homes. Daniel and Jonathan Leavitt built small houses in Carleton near old Fort Frederick, where they were under the protection of Fort Howe. Messrs. Samuel Peabody, Gervas Say, Elijah Estabrooks, James Woodman, Thomas Jenkins, Zebedee Ring, John Bradley, John Jones and Peter Smith were so harrassed “by the continual robberies of the Rebel boats” that they were compelled to move up the river to escape the dangers of their exposed situation.