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St. Ann's Bay, located in the northern part of Victoria County on Cape Breton Island, is quite a large body of water, which, together with the surrounding countryside, hills and forests, is reminiscent of the Highlands of Scotland. Into this beautiful bay, on May 20, 1820, sailed a ready-made Congregation of Scotch Presbyterians, who consequently began a settlement, the character of which has been perpetuated through generations of descendants. They were a hardy, courageous and industrious lot - as pioneers are wont to be - and deeply religious, since this congregation had in their midst a leader who was concerned for the Christian nurture of his people. Therefore, religious observances were an aspect of major importance of this early community.

However, St. Ann's Bay had seen others centuries before these Scottish pioneers made Cape Breton their home: and these others represented at least three different cultures. First, of course, were the native North Americans, the Indians. Probably of Micmac descent, they roamed the shores of the bay, making their camps wherever they found good fishing and hunting. Names of places along the shores of St. Ann's still bear witness to the presence of the Indians - such as Indian Brook. It is believed that the Indians had camps at North Gut and Jersey Cove; and some people in Englishtown are quite certain that St. Mark's Presbyterian Church there is located on the site of an Indian camping ground. A well between the Church and the water is known, even today, as "the Indian well". The Indians called this whole district "Cibou"; and the two islands off the mouth of the bay, known today as Bird Islands, were "Cibou Islands". One of the islands is still known by the Indian name.

The Indians continued to roam and camp in St. Ann's up to the time of the coming of the Scots, trading with the businessmen of the settlements. Soon after the turn of the Eighteenth Century. however, they, like, their brothers across the continent, were gathered into various reservations.

The French settlement in St. Ann's, which could boast any form of "civilized" organization, began about 1629 when a French ship mad her way to the entrance of the bay. The Captain, whose name was Daniel, established a small fort in which he built a chapel, a house and a magazine. lt was named Port Dauphine. This settlement was peopled with forty armed men and two Jesuit priests. Sometime later, other French settlers arrived. However, it was not until very late in the Seventeenth Century that the community flourished. An enterprising Frenchman, Nicholas Denys, with others of his family, established a trading post which did considerable business, especially with the Indians; and the settlement grew.

In 1713, after the Treaty of Utrecht, Cape Breton was ceded to France. The French King, seeing the strategic value of this small island on the Atlantic coast, which was controlled from Hudson's Bay to Florida by the British, decided to build a fortress of major dimensions. There were three possible locations, each with its own advantages. They were: St Ann's Bay, Sydney Harbour, and Louisbourg. Louisbourg was chosen because it provided the necessary accessibility by water all year round. St. Ann's Bay was ice-locked in winter and spring, and the entrance to Sydney Harbour was too wide to be defended easily. Thus the little Fort Dauphin remained a rather insignificant battery in the French fortifications of Cape Breton. A number of its inhabitants moved to Boularderie and Louisbourg.

During this time, the community at Port Dauphin was ministered to by Jesuit priests, of whom there were several, and most of whom stayed for relatively short periods of time. However, the Jesuit Fathers did a considerable work in evangelizing the Indians.

After 1759, and the fall of Louisbourg, most of the remaining French settlers moved from Port Dauphin; and those who did not return to France, relocated in other areas on Cape Breton where they hoped to live in peace and without fear of harassment. Their places were taken by a people with a different tongue and culture - the English. Probably the majority of the first English-speaking settlers were soldiers of the British Imperial Army who had retired from active duty, or had been discharged after the war with the French. There is little doubt that at this time the name of the small settlement was changed from Port Dauphin to Englishtown, taking its name from the number of English families that settled there. Gaelic-speaking Scots who arrived later called it "Ballana-Gheall", Town of the English.

While St. Ann's was predominantly populated now with English-speaking people, not all of these were citizens of England. There were some Irish who settled along the North Shore as well as in Englishtown. They, too, may have been soldiers of the Imperial Army. However, some year after the coming of the Scots, the Irish moved away, the trend of years before influencing their activity. The Scots, who were mostly Presbyterian, and the Irish, who were predominantly Roman Catholic, rarely saw eye-to-eye. There is a story of a Scotsman who landed in Ingonish among a largely Roman Catholic settlement there, and desiring to make his home among "his own kind", made a satisfactory trade with an Irish family on the North Shore, whose desire, no doubt, would have been to remove themselves as far as possible from his Scottish neighbours.

While there may have been a few Scots in the Imperial Army, the Scottish immigration into St. Ann's did not begin until after 1800. The largest number of Scottish pioneers to come in one body, or at one time, arrived from Pictou in 1820 with Mr. Norman McLeod. However, after that, there was a continuous influx of Scots, both from Scotland and the Pictou area, until all the shores of St. Ann's Bay echoed the strange gutteral sounds which came from the throats of these hardy people.

Since the history of the Church at St. Ann's begins in earnest with the coming of the Scots, and the purpose of this essay is to deal specifically with that, more detail will be devoted to the Scottish invasion of St. Ann's Bay, beginning in the "Old Country".

NORMAN MCLEOD AND HIS FOLLOWERS

The Church at St Ann's was influenced very profoundly by one man - the Rev. Norman McLeod. Any history of St. Ann's, whether it be of the Church or of the social, economic and educational development of the area, must reckon with this notable man. In St. Ann's, the Scottish community on the whole was patterned after the Clan society of ancient Scotland. In Scotland in the late Eighteenth Century the Clan had become a rather loose organization of people under the leadership of one man who usually inherited his office. In very early times, the Chieftain was like a monarch, demanding and receiving absolute loyalty and obedience from his Clan. At the time which is of, interest to this essay, the Clan society had weakened considerably. However, there was a strong tradition, and perhaps a rivalry among the various Clans which served to maintain a definite bond between the Chieftain and his Clan.

Norman McLeod, born in 1780 near Stoer Point in Assynt, Scotland, grew up in this kind of environment, and was infIuenced by it. He became a leader among men, not by virture of heredity, but by the very forcefulness of his personality, which exerted itself' before he left his homeland. Only in his rise to leadership did he differ from the Clan Chieftains. In every other respect he was as much a chief as any Chieftain.

The first thirty years of his life influenced very deeply Norman McLeod's thought, attitude and activity, particularly his attitude towards the Church. During his adult life he was profoundly conscious of the sovereignty of God, and not once did he waver in his alleigance to his Master, nor did he question the existence or authority of God. When he was about thirty years of age he decided to answer the Call to the Ministry, and in 1812 graduated from King's College, the University of Aberdeen, with an Arts degree. He began a course of study in theology at Edinburgh, but before the course was finished he observed that the ministers of the Church of Scotland were infected with a spiritual and moral disease that resulted in indifference, selfishness and a very low dedication to their work. He determined that this attitude of the Clergy was general, and not limited to a few of his acquaintances, notably his own parish minister. This disease was caused by a general deficiency in the Church of Scotland. He deplored the situation and the men who found security in the system rather than in the truth which they were supposed to represent. Thus, his desire to be a minister of the Church of Scotland being fatally stricken, he left his studies and turned to teaching.

As a teacher, Mr. McLeod proved himself quite able and successful. However because the schools were under the jurisdiction of the Church, he ran headlong into trouble. Under the Scottish parish system, a minister might have several Churches in his parish, and they could be so scattered that he could not conduct services in every one each Sunday. It then became the responsibility of the schoolmaster, on the Sundays when the minister was not present, to read the Scriptures and give some kind of exposition. Because of his attitude towards the Church of Scotland, Mr. McLeod frequently used those occasions in his parish as golden opportunities to speak his mind about the Church and her ministers. This, to say the least brought him into conflict with the parish minister, who retaliated by using his authority to have Norman McLeod removed from his teaching position.

The picture we have of Norman McLeod paints him as a determined and unyielding individual. Thus, his conflict with the Church did not diminish, but increased. The Church, on the other hand, probably did as much as possible to thwart Mr. McLeod in his efforts to be a God-fearing man, and thus brought about a complete alienation of Norman McLeod from the established Church. It is quite possible that a man of lesser fortitude, milder disposition or weaker religious conviction would have succumed to the authority and power of the Church, or perhaps might have lost his faith altogether. Not so Norman McLeod.

As things went from bad to worse in his estimation, he decided to emigrate to Canada. In 1817, he left for Pictou, Nova Scotia, sailing from Loch Broom on the "Frances Ann". On the voyage over, he established himself as a leader of men, and earned the respect of the other passengers who submitted themselves to his decisions.

These new immigrants found Pictou to be thriving settlement with considerble ship-building and lumbering occupying the industry of the people. However, the choice lots along the shore had been taken and the passengers off the "Frances Ann" followed Mr. McLeod inland. Since the Church of Scotland had been established in Nova Scotia long before he arrived, Norman found that his thorn in the flesh was still very much in evidence. Therefore, he began to hold religious services in his own cabin. In spite of his uncompromising and inflexible nature, he must have had a rather magnetic personality, for he gathered to himself quite a large following.

Though he deplored the shallowness of the established Church and her clergy, Norman observed that Nova Scotia was a land of opportunity and urged his fellow Scots at home to move. However, before very long, he realized that the Pictou area would not provide the environment for the kind of leadership he wanted to exercise. Further. he decided that he would not raise his family, who arrived sometime after he had settled, in the atmosphere that was, prevalent in Pictou. He began to look elsewhere for a Promised Land.

Correspondence with a friend in Ohio drew his attention to that large country to the south. and he determined to go there. In preparation, he and his followers set about building a vessel that would transport their families and belongings to that land which was purported to be kinder and milder, and a land better suited for farming. The neighbours who were not of his following, jeered his efforts, and derisively named his ship "The Ark". The name was adopted by the builders.

In September 1818, according to one account, the eighteen ton vessel was ready, and Norman with ten or fifteen others set sail. Unwilling to face the fierce Atlantic in an untried ship, the maiden voyage took a course around Cape Breton Island. After some days sailing, the "Ark" was anchored off St. Ann's Bay while the crew did some fishing. After a good catch of the fish which seemed to be quite plentiful, the "Ark" was sailed up St. Ann's Bay to a piece of land that jutted into the bay. The crew landed and did some exploring of the countryside. They decided that it must have been providential that they stopped here, and determined to go no farther. This was the Promised Land for which they were preparing to seek. The members of the crew chose sites on which they would eventually settle, and built the walls of their cabins. They immediately set sail for Pictou to spend the winter and make preparations to bring their families and possessions to Cape Breton.

They arrived in St Ann's in 1820. By this time there were only a few families living in the district, the rest having drifted away to other places. Most of those families that remained probably were settled in the vicinity of Englishtown.

A second account of the arrival of these Scotch settlers suggests that on the completion of the building of the "Ark", families and possessions were loaded, and the little band of courageous people set sail for Ohio. The course they took brought them around the west side of Cape Breton to the Atlantic. A storm caused an unscheduled anchoring in St. Ann's Bay, and the travellers, liking what they saw, decided not to go to Ohio, but to settle here.

The account of the journey which claims that there were two voyages made - one a trial run, the other making St.Ann's the destination - seems to be more reasonable. It is most unlikely that the ship-builders, however confident they might have been in their craftsmanship, would have set sail on such a long voyage as that to Ohio without first taking the ship out to determine if she were seaworthy. And further, why would these experienced navigators have chosen a course which would take them around Cape Breton when they could have sailed through the Canso Strait? The second account is not to be taken as totally untrue. In their haste to leave Pictou, Norman McLeod and his followers could have taken the risk involved in loading and setting sail in an untried vessel. However, the reason for the choice of the route - the seamanship - should be questioned.

Cape Breton had been a separate province with its own administrative centre in the small town of Sydney. In 1820, it was reunited to Nova Scotia. Therefore, Norman wrote to Halifax to petition grant of land for himself and his band of followers. He was beginning to establish himself as a kind of chieftain, and was acknowledged as such by his people.

As an indication of his zeal, and perhaps of his desire for full authority as leader and guardian of the settlement, Mr. McLeod, a few years after his arrival in St. Ann's, secured his own appointment as magistrate. Since he was already administering religious services in a limited way- being unordained - he now represented the law in both spiritual and temporal matters. He was convinced, however, that he needed full authority in spiritual matters to encourage his people in his new life. For example, he believed that a civil marriage ceremony was not sufficient to guard them against the temptations and laxities presented by the freedoms in this new life.

Therefore, in 1826, he journed to the United States, where he was taken on trials for license by the Genesee Presbytery in the State of New York. In July 1827, he was ordained by the same Presbytery. He immediately returned to St. Ann's to exercise his leadershipwith this new scope. There remained only one other major area where he did not have full authority. Though he had been a teacher in Scotland, and he conscientiously continued his activities in the field of education, his school in St. Ann's was not recognized by the Nova Scotia Government. His desire, then was to rectify this situation. Before the end of 1827 he had completed the necessary steps and obtained his license as schoolmaster.

Norman McLeod was now chief in every sense of the word, being magistrate, teacher and preacher, with full authority in each realm. He exercised this authority with a firm, though sometimes arrogant and arbitrary hand.

After this first invasion of the Scottish people into the country surrounding St.Ann's Bay, there was a steady stream of immigrants from Scotland and Pictou County, Nova Scotia. The "Ark", now owned by one Alex Munro, made many trips between Pictou and St.Ann's, bringing livestock and supplies to the new settlement, and returning with stories of the good life that touched Highland hearts, heavy because of the confinement to inland Pictou County. Many of Norman's friends who did not leave Pictou with the first boatload of pioneers, were attracted by stories of waters teeming with fish, and land that could be worked. They soon followed their friends, and took up residence in St. Ann's.

Many Highland people from Scotland also found their way to Cape Breton. Perhaps the landscape reminded them of the home they have loved, but had been forced to leave because of social and economic conditions. Being a strong and hardy people with courage and industriousness inbred, this new land provided them with a substitute for the old which maintained their love for Highland ways, and challenged them in pioneer activity. All these people settled in the Sydneys, in Baddeck, Boularderie, Middle River, North River, Grand River and Ingonish, as well as in St.Ann's. Within ten to fifteen years after the first unloading of the "Ark", St. Ann's became a thickly populated area.

• A History of the Presbyterian Church in St. Ann's

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