- Walter Patterson
Walter Patterson (1735 or
1742 -September 6 1798 ) was the first British colonial Governor ofPrince Edward Island .Birth and life in the military
Little is known of Patterson's early years, although his reported place of birth is Foxhall,
Letterkenny ,County Donegal ,Ireland .Patterson joined the
British Army early in life, participating in theSeven Years' War with the80th Regiment of Light-Armed Foot . He was soon appointed to the rank ofCaptain .Governor
In 1763, Prince Edward Island (then known as St. John's Island) was ceded to the British by the French, and it became a
British colony .In 1764, Patterson requested grants to own land on the island, and he and his brother, John Patterson (father of future US Naval hero Commodore
Daniel Patterson ), were awarded Lot 19, near the present-day town of Kensington, through the 1767 land lottery.On
May 30 1769 , the British Privy Council declared St. John's Island a colony with its own government, separating it fromNova Scotia . Patterson was appointed the island's first Governor onJuly 19 1769 and arrived on the island onAugust 30 1770 .Soon after taking the Oath of Office in September of 1770, Patterson had already formed an Executive Council, and one of his and the council's first ordinances was to enforce the payment of
Quit-Rent .Following the first Assembly elections in 1773, Patterson acquired over 100,000
acres (400km² ) of land from proprietors who had failed to pay their quit-rent. The land was to be sold off. The former proprietors wrote to theBritish government asking that their land be returned, and when this failed, they asked that Patterson be removed from office. This was to the first of several incidents which would cause tension between the British government and Governor Patterson.Soon after the petitions were sorted through in
England , theSecretary of State from theBritish government wrote to Patterson, onJuly 24 1783 , ordering him to present a bill to the Assembly, one which Patterson was told he had to support. The bill was for theannulment of the land sales. Going against the British government, Patterson opposed the bill and managed to receive a majority from the Executive Council, supporting his decision.The British government retaliated by removing Walter Patterson from office, on
June 17 1786 . He officially left office onNovember 4 .In 1789, Patterson returned to England where he died nine years later.
References
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2107 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
* [http://www.gov.pe.ca/lg/gallery/01Patterson.php3 Government of Prince Edward Island biography]
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