Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis (5 March 1713 - 14 January 1776) was a British military officer who was a member of the aristocratic Cornwallis family. Cornwallis fought in Scotland, putting down the Jacobite rebellion and then was given the task of establishing Halifax, Nova Scotia as the Governor of Nova Scotia (1749-1752). The establishment of Halifax was violently opposed by the indigenous Mi'kmaq and Cornwallis attempted to stop the attacks by sponsoring a bounty on Mi'kmaq. Cornwallis negotiated the ill-fated Treaty of 1752 with one band of Mi'kmaq, but was unsuccessful in defeating the Mi'kmaq, whom he considered to be rebels. Cornwallis returned to London, where he was elected as MP for Westminster and married the niece of Great Britain's first Prime Minister. Cornwallis was then given the position of Governor of Gibraltar.
Cornwallis is remembered in the naming of rivers, parks, streets, towns and buildings in Nova Scotia. The honouring of Cornwallis has become controversial in Nova Scotia, where the Mi'kmaqs and others object. A statue of Cornwallis in a downtown park in Halifax has been the site of protests and vandalism.
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Early life
He was the sixth son of Charles, 4th Baron Cornwallis, and Lady Charlotte Butler, daughter of the Earl of Arran. The Cornwallis family possessed estates at Culford in Suffolk and the Channel Islands. His grandfather, Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, was First Lord of the Admiralty. His nephews were Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, James Cornwallis, 4th Earl Cornwallis, and William Cornwallis.
He and his twin brother, Frederick Cornwallis, were made royal pages at the age of 12. They were enrolled at Eton at age 14. Their brother, Stephen Cornwallis, rose to the rank of General in the Army.
It was initially unclear which brother would enter the church and which the military. The matter was decided when, one day, Frederick fell and paralysed his arm; he would take the religious path.
At age 18, Edward was commissioned into the 47th Regiment of Foot in 1731.
Military career
War of the Austrian Succession
Cornwallis participated in the Battle of Fontenoy during the War of the Austrian Succession. He fought under Colonel Craig, who was killed in action. Cornwallis took over command of the regiment and organised a retreat. Cornwallis's regiment lost eight officers and 385 men. While the retreat was respected by the military, the British public mocked Cornwallis and the other leaders.
Cornwallis played an important role in suppressing the Jacobite rising of 1745. He fought for the victorious British soldiers at the Battle of Culloden and then led a regiment of 320 men north for the Pacification of the Scottish Highlands. The Duke of Cumberland ordered him to "plunder, burn and destroy through all the west part of Invernesshire called Lochaber." Cumberland added: "You have positive orders to bring no more prisoners to the camp." Cumberland's' campaign was later described by one historian as one of unrestrained violence. Cornwallis ordered his men to chase off livestock, destroy crops and food stores. Against Cornwallis' orders, there was an incident in which some of soldiers used rape and murdered non-combatants to intimidate Jacobites from further rebellion.
In 1747 he was made a Groom of the Bedchamber serving in the households of both George II and George III until 1764.
Founding of Halifax
The British Government appointed Cornwallis as Governor of Nova Scotia with the task of establishing a new British settlement to counter France's Fortress Louisbourg. He sailed from England aboard HMS Sphinx of 14 May 1749, followed by a settlement expedition of 15 vessels and about 2500 settlers. Cornwallis arrived at Chebucto Harbour on 21 June 1749, followed by the rest of the fleet five days later. There was only one death during the passage due to careful preparations, good ventilation and good luck, a remarkable feat when Transatlantic expeditions regularly lost large numbers to disease.
Cornwallis was immediately faced with a difficult decision: where to site the town. Settlement organizers in England had recommended Point Pleasant due to its close access to the ocean and ease of defence. His naval advisers opposed the Point Pleasant site due to its lack of shelter and shallows which would not allow ocean-going ships to dock. They wanted the town located at the head of Bedford Basin, a sheltered location with deep water. Others favoured Dartmouth. Cornwallis made the decision to land the settlers and build the town at the site of present-day Downtown Halifax halfway up the harbour with deep water, protected by a defensible hill (later known as Citadel Hill). By 24 July, the plans of the town had been drawn up and on 20 August lots were drawn to award settlers their town plots in a settlement that was to be named "Halifax" after Lord Halifax the President of the Board of Trade and Plantations who had drawn up the expedition plans for the British Government.
Relations with the Wabanaki Confederacy
One of Cornwallis' first priorities was to make peace with the Wabanaki Confederacy, which included the Mi'kmaq. (The Confederacy had been aligned with New France through four wars starting with King William's War.) A group of Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and single band of Mi'kmaq met with Cornwallis in the Summer of 1749. They agreed with the British to end fighting and renewed an earlier 1725 treaty drafted in Boston, redrafted as the Treaty of 1749.
Cornwallis' efforts to have other Mi'kmaw tribes sign treaties were rejected. Most Mi'kmaq leaders in Nova Scotia regarded the unilateral establishment of Halifax as a violation of the 1725 treaty with the Mi'kmaq people, signed after Father Rale's War..
Mi'kmaq leaders met at St. Peters in Cape Breton in September 1749 to respond to British moves. They composed a letter to Cornwallis making it clear that, while they tolerated the small garrison at Annapolis Royal, they completely opposed settlement at Halifax: "The place where you are, where you are building dwellings, where you are now building a fort, where you want, as it were, to enthrone yourself, this land of which you want to make yourself absolute master, this land belongs to me". Thus Mi'kmaq leaders regarded the Halifax settlement as "a great theft that you have perpetrated against me."
A wave of Mi'kmaq attacks began immediately afterwards. At Chignecto Bay, Mi'kmaw fighters attacked two British ships while two others were seized at Canso. At Halifax, Mi'kmaw attacks began on settlers and soldiers outside the fortified township, beginning with the first of several raids on the longhouse lumbering settlement at Dartmouth across the harbour. Five were killed in the initial attack and one escapee came to bring the news to Cornwallis. His Council met and while they urged either negotiation or a formal declaration of war, Cornwallis took the position that there was no sovereignty to negotiate with or declare war on and that the Mi'kmaq were British subjects and therefore should be considered "rebels."
This stage of the long-running Anglo-Mi'kmaq conflict is known by some historians as Father Le Loutre's War.
Father Le Loutre's War
When Cornwallis arrived in Halifax, there was a long history of frontier warfare in Acadia and Nova Scotia between the British and the Wabanaki Confederacy (which included the Mi'kmaq). The Mi'kmaq sought to protect their land by killing British civilians along the New England/Acadia border in Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688, 1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747). Despite the end of King George's War by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, there was renewed fighting in Acadia during Cornwallis' governorship, which was called Father Le Loutre's War.
Cornwallis sought to project British military power by establishing forts in the largest Acadian communities, at Pisiguit (Windsor) (Fort Edward), Grand Pré (Fort Vieux Logis), and Chignecto (Fort Lawrence). The fighting started when Acadians and Mi'kmaq responded by attacking the British at Chignecto, Grand Pré, Dartmouth, Canso, and Halifax. The French erected forts at present day Saint John, Chignecto (Fort Beauséjour), and Port Elgin, New Brunswick. Cornwallis's forces attacked the Mi'kmaq and Acadians at Mirligueche (later known as Lunenburg), Chignecto, and St. Croix.
British governors had often issued proclamations against the Mi'kmaq for their raids. After the Raid on Dartmouth, Cornwallis issued a proclamation to separate the two populations, by banning the Mi'kmaq from peninsular Nova Scotia. In New England, the British paid their Rangers a bounty for Mi'kmaq scalps, and the French paid the Wabanaki for British scalps. Cornwallis followed New England's example in his proclamation, which offered a bounty for the scalps of Mi'kmaw fighters. He later issued a bounty in March 1750 for Mi'kmaw women and children if they were taken prisoners. The bounties were not effective. Cornwallis increased the bounty for Mi'kmaw fighters dramatically in March 1751, but this increase brought in only one scalp in the next four months. In 1752, one of the french priests working against the British Pierre Maillard listed the English atrosities since 1744 and indicated there were none during Cornwallis period as governor.
In May 1751, the Mi'kmaw mounted their largest attack on British settlers with the Raid on Dartmouth. With this raid, the Mi'kmaq had stopped British expansion and therefore the Mi'kmaw stopped attacking. Cornwallis interpreted the cessation of attacks as the Mi'kmaq wanting peace. Indeed, Cornwallis laid the foundation for and was at the signing of the Treaty of 1752 with Major Cope. Cornwallis attended the meeting at Cope's request. Having only committed to being Governor for two years, Cornwallis eventually resigned his commission and left the colony in October 1752. (The treaty was ultimately rejected by most of the other Mi'kmaq leaders. Cope burned the treaty six months after he signed it ).
Cornwallis left Nova Scotia in 1752, three years before Father Le Loutre's War ended in 1755, and was appointed Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot.
Seven Years War
In November 1756 Cornwallis was one of three colonels who were ordered to proceed to Gibraltar and from there embark for Menorca, which was then under siege from the French. Admiral John Byng called a council of war, which involved Cornwallis, and advised the return of the fleet to Gibraltar leaving the garrison at Menorca to its fate. Byng, Cornwallis and the other officers were arrested when they returned to England. A large, unruly mob attacked the officers as they left their ships in Portsmouth and later burned effigies of Cornwallis and the other officers.
The officers faced court martial on "suspicion of disobedience of orders and neglect of duty." Byng was found guilty and executed. Cornwallis testified that he had not disobeyed orders, but that it was "impracticable" to land at Menorca due to stiff French defences. Further, he said he was following Byng's command. "I looked upon myself as under the command of the admiral and should have thought it my duty to have obeyed him," he testified. Cornwallis was judged to have been a passenger under the control of Byng and was thus exonerated.
Cornwallis was also one of the senior officers in the September 1757 Raid on Rochefort which saw a failed amphibious descent on the French coastline. The vast force massed on the Isle of Wight before sailing for Rochefort. The fleet stopped at Ile D'Aix and examined the French defences. General Sir John Mordaunt, head of the land forces, decided the defences were too strong to attack. He called a council of war. Cornwallis voted to retreat, while Admiral Edward Hawke, head of the naval forces, and James Wolfe, quartermaster general, voted to attack. Mordaunt and Cornwallis carried the day and the mission was abandoned.
Mordaunt was arrested and faced court martial. Cornwallis testified that an attempted landing at Rochefort would have been "dangerous, almost impracticable and madness." James Wolfe wrote to his father in November of 1757 and said Cornwallis "...has more zeal, more merit, and more integrity than one commonly meets with among men....Cornwallis is a man of approved courage and fidelity."
Governor of Gibraltar
Cornwallis served as the Governor of Gibraltar from 14 June 1761 to January 1776 when he died at the age of 63. His body was returned to England and laid to rest at Culford Parish Church in Culford, near Bury St. Edmunds on 9 February 1776. Both of his family titles are now extinct. In 1899, MacDonald wrote, "His name is fast coming under the category of 'Britain's forgotten worthies'."
Personal life
In 1763, Cornwallis married Mary Townshend, daughter of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend and Dorothy Townshend (Walpole), the sister of Robert Walpole. His marriage to Mary did not produce any children. His brother, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis married Mary's half sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Charles and his first wife, Elizabeth Pelham. Through his brother's marriage, he became uncle of General Lord Cornwallis.?
Commemorations
Several buildings (Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis, a former Canadian Forces Base located in Deep Brook, Nova Scotia), places (Cornwallis Street in Halifax, Cornwallis Street in Shelburne, the Cornwallis River, and Cornwallis Park, Nova Scotia) and other landmarks have been named in honour of Cornwallis' legacy. A number of ships were named after Cornwallis, including the 1944 harbour ferry Governor Cornwallis and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Edward Cornwallis. The Edward Cornwallis Statue was erected in 1931 by J. Massey Rhind, an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. The statue stands at the center of Cornwallis Park in downtown Halifax and was erected by CN Hotels, the former owner of the present day Westin Hotel, which faces the park. Real estate status of the park is unclear.
The appropriateness of prominent memorials to Cornwallis has recently drawn controversy despite his significance to provincial and national history. There are those that believe Cornwallis should not be given such prominent recognition because of allegations made by Daniel Paul and journalist Jon Tattrie that he wanted to kill all the Mi'kmaq and allegations that he permitted brutality towards Scots.
Daniel N. Paul alleges that Cornwallis committed genocide--a claim which has been disputed by historians. In his book, We Were Not the Savages, Paul acknowledges there is no direct evidence of genocide (a claim supported by historian John G. Reid). As a result of not having direct evidence, Paul relies on circumstantial evidence to support his allegations against Cornwallis. He references two incidents in which the British allegedly killed Mi'kmaw women and children. One incident involved the taking of 25 scalps and the other happened near Digby. Both alleged incidents happened years after Cornwallis had left Nova Scotia . Journalist Jon Tattrie offers the same circumstantial evidence to make the same allegations against Cornwallis.
Assertions that Cornwallis committed genocide against the Mi'kmaw infers the Mi'kmaq were defeated by the British, signing treaties of surrender eight years after Cornwallis left the colony. In contrast, Reid argues that the Mi'kmaq military power remained formidable for decades after Cornwallis left. Reid suggests they were so powerful that they signed the Halifax Treaties from a position of military power, not defeat, as allegations of genocide suggest.
Paul has frequently campaigned for the renaming of buildings and streets bearing the name of Cornwallis; he was credited with influencing the 1995 renaming of Halifax's Cornwallis Place to Summit Place (in honour of the 21st G7 summit). In June 2011, acting upon a motion by its Mi'kmaq representative Kirk Arsenault, the Halifax Regional School Board renamed Cornwallis Junior High School to Halifax Central Junior High to remove Cornwallis's name: Arsenault stated in the motion that its naming was "deeply offensive to members of our Mi'kmaq communities and to Nova Scotians generally who believe school names should recognize persons whose contributions to society are unblemished by acts repugnant to the values we wish our schools to embody and represent."
The 1931 statue
There is a statue of Edward Cornwallis in Cornwallis Square, Halifax, Nova Scotia, opposite the Canadian National Railway station. The statue was made by J. Massey Rhind and unveiled on 22 June 1931, on the 182nd anniversary of Cornwallis' arrival to Halifax. Over the last twenty years, the existence of a statue of Cornwallis in a public space in Halifax has generated significant controversy. Historian John G. Reid writes that the conflicting viewpoints centered on the issue of historical memory, that is, "how the past should be publicly remembered." He writes that when the Cornwallis statue was created it "was an assertion and a resounding expression of imperial triumph." The statue is often vandalized, often with red paint symbolizing the alleged blood on his hands.
"Removing Cornwallis"
Public debate over the 1931 Cornwallis statue flared up again in December 2015, when Premier of Nova Scotia Stephen McNeil, after the removal of a sign marking the Cornwallis River near a Mi'kmaq community for sensitivity reasons, on the basis of Paul's allegations against Cornwallis, stated that he planned to request its removal from Cornwallis Park, going on to say that "he is part of the history of this area, bad or good, he's still part of it. He should be acknowledged for that part. But it should also be taught some of the atrocities that he committed." Halifax council member David Hendsbee proposed a compromise of moving the statue to the downtown riverfront, facing the Halifax Citadel as a nod to where he first arrived. In May 2016, a motion was made in Halifax Regional Council to rename municipal properties bearing Cornwallis's name, but it was defeated 8-7.
On July 1, 2017, a mourning ceremony was held at the Cornwallis statue site in Halifax. It was a ceremony to remember the missing indigenous women. It was disrupted by five members of the Canadian Armed Forces, calling themselves members of the right-wing group the Proud Boys. The five were suspended from the Forces and the Forces' leadership apologized. Local radio host Rick Howe openly questioned the military's decision and whether the statue and Canadian flag were legitimately defended by their actions.
On July 15, following a week's warning that the statue would be removed on that date by a group affiliated with elders of the Wabanaki Confederacy Council, Women's Council (Mi'kmaq) and Grand Council (Mi'kmaq) during which the issue was heavily debated in local media especially (again) on Howe's call-in show, a compromise was reached the day before with Mayor Mike Savage whereby the City of Halifax agreed to shroud the statue for a week while the ongoing process to review the park's name and the statue would be accelerated. This very late agreement meant that the city was only able to secure a borrowed shroud from a production company, which it removed after a ceremony mourning victims of Cornwallis and his policies. This compromise was acceptable to the organizers but not to everyone, so within an hour after the large group's departure, an orange tarpaulin was attached with tape to the statue to obscure it per the original agreement, with signs added to "make it right". Someone removed this second tarp and these signs later that day. Native organizers set a new deadline of October 1, 2017 - long celebrated as Treaty Day - to remove it for good. Halifax Council met formally to hear this and other naming demands on July 18, 2017. Council decided to put the issue to further study.
Councillor David Hendsbee has been a consistent defender of the statue and "is in favour of putting the Edward Cornwallis statue near the Halifax ferry terminal where Cornwallis is thought to have disembarked in 1749", which would make it even more visible to persons not familiar with the entire history of the city, especially tourists visiting the waterfront.
Daniel Paul has suggested renaming the park Donald Marshall Jr. Memorial Park and replacing the statue with one of Donald Marshall Jr., wrongly convicted of murder in his youth and a fighter for the rights of the Mi'kmaq people.
In popular culture
- Edward Cornwallis is the subject of The Hampton Grease Band song entitled "Halifax" which appears on the double album Music to Eat.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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