THE EDDY REBELLION.
THE Eddy Rebellion does not occupy much space in history, but it was an important event in the district where it occurred, and in the lives of those who were responsible for it.The leaders were Colonel Jonathan Eddy, Sheriff John Allan, or "Rebel John," as he was afterwards called, William Howe, and Samuel Rogers.Eddy, Rogers and Allan had been, or were at that time members of the Assembly at Halifax.Allan was a Scotsman by birth, the others were from New England.
The pretext for the rebellion was the militia order of Governor Legge;the real reason was the sympathy of the New Englanders with their brother colonists.It was represented at the Continental Congress that six hundred persons in Nova Scotia, whose names were given, were ready to join any army who might come to their help.If these six hundred names represented those who were of an age to bear arms, then the statement of Arbuthnot that the New Englanders were all disloyal was correct.
The first step taken in opposition to Governor Legge's order was to petition against its enforcement.The petition from Cumberland referred to the destruction of the fort on the St.John River as "rather an act of inconsideration than otherwise," and then said, "those of us who belong to New England, being invited into this Province by Governor Lawrence's proclamation, it must be the greatest piece of cruelty and imposition for them to be subjected to march into different parts in arms against their friends and relations.The Acadians among us being also under the same situation, most, if not all, having friends distributed in different parts of America, and that done by order of His Majesty."This petition was signed by sixty-four persons in Cumberland, the Amherst petition was signed by fifty-eight, and the Sackville one by seventy-three.Fifty-one of the petitioners were Acadians.The date was December 23rd, 1775.
Governor Legge took no other action on these petitions than to send them at once to the British Government as evidence of the disloyalty of the Province, and at the same time he wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth that some persons had spread the report that he was trying to draw the militia to Halifax that he might transport them to New England and make soldiers of them.He also adds, "The consequence of such reports influenced the whole country, so that many companies of the militia have refused to assemble, ending in these remonstrances which here in a public manner have been transmitted to your Lordship."As soon as it became known to the petitioners that Governor Legge would not cancel the militia order, and that the petitions had been forwarded to Downing Street, it was decided to elect delegates to meet in Cumberland to take into consideration what steps should next be taken.