About the book
About the author
Notes on this edition

About the Book

An Account of Prince Edward Island was published in London in 1806, and is the first published history of the Island. The first half of the book, up to "Cultivation and Rural Affairs", is concerned largely with a description of the natural history of the Island. This is probably the most valuable part of the book because it tells us what the Island was like nearly two hundred years ago. I think that many readers will find his descriptions very interesting.

The next two chapters "Discovery and Settlement" and "Administration of Lieutenant Governor Fanning" are concerned with the politics of the Island, and especially the issues surrounding the conduct of absentee landowners. The author does not tell us the role he played in these matters; it is only from other sources that it becomes clear that he had a prominent role in the politics of the Island, and the story he tells is intended to persuade the reader of the rightness of his point of view. The two long lists of the state of each lot with respects to the terms of settlement are clearly very important to the point that John Stewart is trying to make, but seem tedious to the modern reader.

The chapter "Constitution, Laws and Religion" describes the constitution of the colonial government of the Island and describes the laws that had been passed by the legislature. I found this fascinating, and it made me realise how little I know about colonial governments in Canada.

About the Author

John Stewart was born c.1758 in Kintyre, Scotland. He came to the Island with the rest of his family, in November 1775 after his father, Peter Stewart, had been appointed chief justice of the colony. After the American revolution broke out, he became a lieutenant in the military corps raised by Administrator Callbeck for the defence of the Island.

He and his family became political opponents of Governor Patterson. He was elected to the legislature in 1784 and was chosen as speaker, but lost his seat in the next year's election. When Patterson was replaced by Lieutenant Governor Edmund Fanning in 1787, Stewart was again elected to the legislature where he was speaker from 1795 until 1801.

In 1789 he bought part of Lot 37, where he built Mount Stewart, a beautiful country residence overlooking the Hillsborough River.

In 1802, he went to London to obtain powers to prosecute for arrears of quitrents. In 1804 he left the Island when he was appointed paymaster general of the British forces in Newfoundland. In 1816 he was summoned to the Island by Governor Smith to prepare an account of his receipts and expenditures as receiver general of quitrents.

Stewart returned to the Island permanently in 1824. He was elected again in 1824 and was re-appointed receiver general of quitrents in 1828. In 1825 he headed the subscription committee to build the Kirk of St. James, the first Presbyterian church in Charlottetown.

Stewart retired from public affairs in 1830, and he died on the 22nd of June 1834.

Information from Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Volume VI. (1821-1835). University of Toronto Press. 1987. p.735-738.

Notes on this Edition

This edition was prepared by scanning a reproduction published by S. R. Publishers Ltd. and the Johnson Reprint Corporation in 1967 as part of a series of reproductions of books in the Toronto Public Library.

The text was scanned using Omnipage Professional 2.12 and converted to html using rtftohtml2.6. Additional markup was entered using Simpletext and Microsoft Word 5.1.

I have tried to keep the original orthography in order to preserve the feel of the text. The work contains a large number of words in archaic spellings such as gulph, chuse and expence. I have tried to correct misprints, and I have inserted the corrections listed in the errata into the text. While I have proofread the text, I am certain that I have introduced new errors not in the original edition.

I have also sometimes introduced new subheadings in order to clarify the division of the text. Additions to text are enclosed in [square brackets].

Peter Irwin
May 7, 1996

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