The Halifax connection, 1749-1848 : a century of oligarchy in Nova Scotia

Abstract

The term 'Family Compact' was used in British North America to refer to the ruling clique or oligarchy which dominated the political and social life of Upper Canada in the years prior to 1848. It has been employed more recently as a generic name or synonym for such oligarchies throughout British North America during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This paper is an attempt to investigate whether the application of such a term to Nova Scotia is valid. If such an oligarchy existed in Nova Scotia, what were the criteria determining membership and composition: place of origin, family, wealth, attitude, residence, religious faith, or some other factor? If such criteria existed, did they exclude or include; that is, were they used as a basis for recruitment into the oligarchy, or was their function to bar undesirables? What led to the development of such a group? Was it created deliberately, or did it 'just happen'? Was it a novelty in the 1820's, or did its roots extend further back? Did it grow out of the patronage and sinecure politics of eighteenth century British 'practice a la Walpole , and the Whigs? Was it the outcome of reaction to the revolutions of the late eighteenth century? Who were the personnel of the oligarchy? What gave them their coherence? How did they keep control? What defeated them, or ended their control? Did the leaders of the set hold public office? What sort of policies did they pursue? To what extent did their composition alter during the years of their hegemony? While it is not intended, nor perhaps even desirable, to provide explicit answers to all these questions, it is hoped that the evidence presented will suggest answers that are more complete. The search for any historical answer can never be so thorough as to provide the complete facts. In a complex social-political-economic- religious situation such as the study of a whole class in the society of a colony, many motives and aspirations, fears and theories, cannot be explained. The approach is not intended to be chronological, although individual incidents within the greater context have been treated that way when clarity dictated such an approach. A fairly complete table of contents has been provided, and any listing of points here would be duplication.