The Power of Religion

Brass of priest (1540) Thaxted

By 1798, John Brack McNeil would have spent about 14 years establishing his farm in Merigomish proving that he was willing to invest in his future. Why then did he sell off his land only to move further up the Gulf Shore to Antigonish County? Was the land better or more developed in Antigonish County? Was life in Merigomish bad in some way? What reason did he have to move?

The reason was religion. Reverend James MacGregor came from Scotland in 1786 to be the first permanent minister in the colony at Pictou. He was Presbyterian as were the majority of the settlers in Pictou County. The settlers who came to Antigonish County, on the other hand, were predominantly Catholic. This was all down to the machinations of Father MacEachern who was based in Prince Edward Island but made sure that the ever-increasing Scottish emigrants to Nova Scotia were sent to different places based on their religion; Presbyterians to Pictou and Catholics to Antigonish. He wanted to make sure that the Catholic emigrants didn't become Presbyterian converts due to the fact that Rev. MacGregor was the only religious leader available on a regular basis. 

As the years and the Catholic emigrants taking up land along the shore in Antigonish County increased, Father MacEachern turned his attention to the settlers in the 82nd Grant. He urged them to leave their land in Pictou County to settle among their fellow Catholics in Antigonish County. Those men whose farms had at last started to increase yields in return for all their hard work must have been hard to persuade but a priest's words carried a lot of clout.* John Brack McNeil was one of the men who upped stakes and relocated to the neighbouring county. Will the written record show evidence of how he fared there?

*A further note: It may be difficult for us in this day and age to realize how much clout a priest had. I can remember hearing my mother-in-law's stories back in the late '70s about the parish priests in her area directing the contents of parishioners' wills with many a fine legacy being willed to the church on the priest's say so.

Sources:

Campbell, G.G. A History of Nova Scotia The Ryerson Press, Halifax, 1948

Campey, Lucille H. After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton 1773-1852. Natural Heritage Books, Toronto, 2004.

MacLean, Raymond History of Antigonish Lithographed by the Casket Printing & Publishing Co., Ltd. 1976

Ryan, Judith Hoegg. The Birthplace of New Scotland: An Illustrated History of Pictou County, Canada’s Cradle of Industry. Formac Publishing Company Limited, Halifax, 1995.

Images:

By Poliphilo - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81903245