Walter Bates
Encyclopedia
Walter Bates was an American who, through actions of his family and himself, came to Nova Scotia to live under British rule.
Bates was born on a farm in eastern Connecticut and may have stayed there except for the activities of his elder brothers on the Tory side of the American War of Independence. That situation forced him to shelter himself among the British sympathizers on Long Island where he taught school. In 1783, he accepted a British offer of 200 acre (0.809372 km²) of land in Nova Scotia plus two years’ supplies and transportation to his new homestead at Kingston
. He was part of the first contingent of settlers who sailed in that year. The ship was the Union (ship)
and he later wrote of his experiences.
Bates was born on a farm in eastern Connecticut and may have stayed there except for the activities of his elder brothers on the Tory side of the American War of Independence. That situation forced him to shelter himself among the British sympathizers on Long Island where he taught school. In 1783, he accepted a British offer of 200 acre (0.809372 km²) of land in Nova Scotia plus two years’ supplies and transportation to his new homestead at Kingston
Kingston, Nova Scotia
Kingston is a village in Kings County on the north bank of the Annapolis River in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada. As of 2001, the population was 3,009....
. He was part of the first contingent of settlers who sailed in that year. The ship was the Union (ship)
Union (ship)
The Union was a snow constructed in England that was wrecked in Fiji in 1804.Built at Barnstaple in the United Kingdom, the Union was registered in New York. Travelling from Sydney to China the Union called at Tongatapu in the Friendly Islands searching for sandalwood. The master of the boat,...
and he later wrote of his experiences.