Moses Gerrish was a

United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalists (or simply Loyalists) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec, and Governor General of The Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America du ...

and one of the original settlers of the island of

Grand Manan Grand Manan is a Canadian island in the Bay of Fundy. Grand Manan is also the name of an incorporated village, which includes the main island and all of its adjacent islands, except White Head Island. It is governed as a village and is part of t ...

Early life and Revolutionary War activities

He was born in Byfield parish,

Newbury, Massachusetts Newbury is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 6,716 at the 2020 census. Newbury includes the villages of Old Town (Newbury Center), Plum Island and Byfield. Each village is a precinct with its own voting district, ...

in 1744. He attended

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

, graduating in 1762 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree, and became a school teacher. At the outbreak of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of ...

he took up residence in

Lancaster, Massachusetts Lancaster is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in the United States. Incorporated in 1653, Lancaster is the oldest town in Worcester County. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 8,441. History In 1643 Lancaster was firs ...

where his family owned land. He supported the British in the conflict and was arrested along with his brother in June 1777 on charges of being "dangerous persons to this and the other United States of America". Moses Gerrish had been circulating

counterfeit money Counterfeit money is currency produced without the legal sanction of a state or government, usually in a deliberate attempt to imitate that currency and so as to deceive its recipient. Producing or using counterfeit money is a form of fraud or fo ...

printed by the British in an effort to deflate the American currency's value. The family's property was confiscated and the brothers were imprisoned for one year. Gerrish joined the British forces as an officer in the

commissary department A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...

Fort George Fort George may refer to: Forts Bermuda * Fort George, Bermuda, built in the late 18th Century and successively developed through the 19th Century, on a site that had been in use as a watch and signal station since 1612 British Virgin Islands * ...

, which was built in 1779 at the mouth of the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River ( Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's ...

Castine, Maine Castine ( ) is a town in Hancock County in eastern Maine.; John Faragher. ''Great and Nobel Scheme''. 2005. p. 68. The population was 1,320 at the 2020 census. Castine is the home of Maine Maritime Academy, a four-year institution that graduat ...

. He stayed at Fort George until the British forces were evacuated at the end of the Revolutionary War.

Grand Manan

As a member of the Penobscot Associated Loyalists, Gerrish was given land in

Charlotte County, New Brunswick Charlotte County (2016 population 25,428) is the southwest-most county of New Brunswick, Canada. It was formed in 1784 when New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia. Once a layer of local government, the county seat was abolished with t ...

Oak Bay Oak Bay is a municipality incorporated in 1906 that is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of thirteen member municipalities of the Capital Regional District, and is border ...

near

St. Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's four ...

. However, he chose to found a settlement on

, an uninhabited island in the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is th ...

. A license signed by the governor of Nova Scotia on 30 December 1783 gave Gerrish and four other Loyalists, "and others, being fifty families" the right to "occupy during pleasure the Island of Grand Manan and the small Islands adjacent in the fishery, with liberty of cutting frame Stuff and timber for building". Gerrish and the other licensees hoped to receive a grant to the entire island if they succeeded in attracting fifty families to the island in seven years, but they were not able to achieve this goal. The first settlers, including Gerrish, arrived on Grand Manan on 6 May 1784. They landed on a

tidal island A tidal island is a piece of land that is connected to the mainland by a natural or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide. Because of the mystique surrounding tidal islands, many of them have been sites of ...

originally called Harbour Island, and adjacent to the present-day community of Grand Harbour. The name was later changed to Ross Island after Thomas Ross, a sea captain who was one of the five licensees. Both Gerrish and Ross made their homes on Ross Island. Gerrish performed the administrative work of the island. He was a justice of the peace and a

customs officer A customs officer is a law enforcement agent who enforces customs laws, on behalf of a government. Canada Canadian customs officers are members of the Canada Border Services Agency. It was created in 2003 and preceded by the Canada Customs and ...

, and had a license to perform marriages. He and Ross continued in their efforts to attract settlers, with Gerrish assigning lots of land to new arrivals. These grants were unofficial, however, as the licensees did not own the land themselves. In 1804 the government of New Brunswick sent a surveyor to Grand Manan to report on conditions and in 1806 the government, in response to a petition by Gerrish, confirmed the de facto ownership of occupied lands and formalized the procedure for future land grants. Gerrish died by drowning in 1830 when his boat capsized as he was returning home from performing a marriage ceremony at the village of Seal Cove. He was buried on Ross Island.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerrish, Moses 1744 births 1830 deaths United Empire Loyalists People from Grand Manan Harvard College alumni Harvard College Loyalists in the American Revolution