Robert Prescott

Robert Prescott (towards 1726 - December 21st, 1815) is an officer and British British colonial administrator. He was the governor of the Low-Canada of 1796 with 1807.

Military career

Entered the army in 1745, Prescott takes part in the Guerre Seven Year old and is aide-de-camp of the general Jeffery Amherst. After the end of the war, it returns in Great Britain, but returns to America in 1775 at the time of the bursting of the American Révolution. It takes part in several battles and reaches the rank of major-general. It returns once more to Great Britain when the peace treaty is signed in 1783. It takes again to service at the time of the First coalition and made countryside in the Antilles of 1793 with 1795. He is governor of the Martinique in 1794.

Governor

The Prescott January 21st, 1796 is named lieutenant-governor of Low-Canada to replace Lord Dorchester. December 15th of the same year its nomination is amended to become general governor of British North America.

Its primary goal is to improve defenses of the colony vis-a-vis the supposed threat of an attack of the French helped by their allies of the the United States. However the financial constraints prevent it from completing military work which it wishes.

The Canadian are somewhat agitated in 1796-1797, and Prescott fears a conspiracy against him and the British population. The situation improves a little at the end of 1797. Prescott decides to stop immigration in Canada of taken refuge French priests, by fear which they encourage among their parishioners the return to a French Mode. On another side, he seeks the support of the Canadian clergy so that this one encourages the support for the government. Its attitude not to encroach on the rights and preferences of the Catholic church makes it enter in conflict with the bishop Anglican Jacob Mountain, who aims at reducing the power and the independence of the catholic hierarchy.

Another problem to which Prescott faces is the important delay in the land surveying of new the cantons opened with colonization and thus in the attribution of the grounds to colonists who discourage from themselves sometimes to go to be established elsewhere. Prescott then shows certain members of its own Executive council to have plotted in order to acquire a great quantity of grounds with an aim of speculation. These persistent disputes end up annoying London, which points out finally in April 1799 the governor for consultations. He will not return any more to Canada. Even if it preserves officially its station and its wages, it is replaced with Quebec by a new lieutenant-governor, Robert Shore Milnes.

It is only in 1807 that it loses its title of governor. He dies a few years later, in 1815.

See too

Related articles

External bonds

  • Note on the biographical Dictionary of Canada
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