Events from the year 1765 in Canada.
Incumbents
- Monarch: George III
Governors
- Governor of the Province of Quebec: James Murray
- Governor of Nova Scotia: Montague Wilmot
- Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland: Hugh Palliser
Events
- 18 May – Fire destroys a large part of the town of Montreal, Quebec.
- The Stamp Act increases discontent. A Stamp Act Congress meets in New York City to protest the Act.
- Reserve system in Canada begins with the provision of a tract of land for the Maliseet tribe.
Births
- April 6 – Paschal Chagnon (d. 1825)
- May 15 – Dominique Ducharme (d. 1853)
- July 9 – Étienne Duchesnois (d. 1826)
- August 3 – Étienne-Claude Lagueux (d. 1842)
- September 15 – Jacques Archambault (d. 1851)
- October 10 – Nicolas-Gaspard Boisseau (d. 1842)
- Unknown – Alexander Henry the younger (d. 1814)
- Unknown – John Brownell (d. 1809)
Deaths
- July 4 – Claude-Godefroy Coquart, missionary (born 1706)
Historical documents
Huge territories won in Seven Years War will ruin Britain with depopulation and trade rivalry (Note: "savages" used)
Thomas Pownall says good policy means faithful and just alliance with Indigenous people, and dropping "that idle, useless claim of dominion" over them
Long list of First Nations (from Atlantic to Mississippi) by name and "the Numbers of their fighting men"
Indigenous parents seldom chastise children because they are either too young to understand or too old to be dominated
"Revered among them in many transactions" - Nature and use of wampum, calumet and tomahawk by Indigenous people
Despite its northern location, Quebec is "a healthy, fruitful, and pleasant country," with St. Lawrence River providing "an extended sea-coast"
Gov. James Murray describes difficulty ruling Quebec given hostility among military, magistrates and merchants in Montreal
London merchants trading to Quebec petition Board of Trade on harmful effects of soldier violence and Gov. Murray's ordinances (Note: poor copy)
Notice of available land grants includes description of Quebec's fertility and productivity, and even its beneficial frost and snow
With end of hostilities with those "who lately appeared in Arms," any subject may take out Indigenous trade licence under Royal Proclamation
VIPs from England touring British colonies benefit from meeting Indigenous people, who demonstrate sagacity and intelligence (Note: "savage" used)
"Maricitte Indians [are] reduced to the lowest Ebb of Misery" by Canadians taking beaver on their Temiscouata-Madawaska-Rivière du Loup lands
Quebec governor's gardener solicits all with knowledge of botanicals, including those used in Indigenous medicines, paints and dyes
Chaplain of Quebec recommends inoculation as "happiest Preservative" against smallpox, it being safe, effective, and "approv'd at Rome"
School is opening to give instruction in "Arithmetic vulgar and decimal, the Extraction and Use of the Square and cube Roots, Mensuration" etc.
Montreal fire of May 18 destroys one-fourth (one-third by value) of city of 7,000, leaving 215 families homeless
"Fair to the eye [and] grateful to the taste" - Profile of Nova Scotia includes description of cod processing
With "water sufficient for any ship that swims," Halifax Harbour has Royal Navy's chief American facility for careening and other maintenance
Protestant missionaries in Nova Scotia speak English, French, Mi'kmaw and German (Note: "savages" used)
Servants who desert their employers are liable to work twice length of their absence, unless they can prove they were abused
Nova Scotian describes Stamp Act unrest in Boston and calm in Halifax
French presence on St. Pierre and Miquelon draws Acadians and Mi'kmaq and warships to undermine British fishery and take Newfoundland
Ship-based fishery, source of seamen for wartime, "is now wholly dropt and excluded by Encroachers and Monopolizers" in Newfoundland
"If the English would be more honest, we should be more generous" - Haudenosaunee tell William Johnson they are cheated of their lands
Traveller says Pontiac and other Indigenous leaders love French for their kind and generous ways, and British will need long time to gain such respect
"[Almost] no part of North America[...]better worth settling, improving, and defending" - Great future foreseen for Great Lakes lands
Recommendation that half-dozen Great Lakes forts, especially ones at Detroit and on Niagara River, be for protecting and wintering British traders
Alexander Henry buys £1,250 in goods at Michilimackinac on 12 months credit and loads them into 4 canoes for exclusive trade on Lake Superior
Frederick Haldimand to move to Canada all St. John's Island Acadians, who will be allowed to take cattle and one firelock, powder and shot per family
"Advantages[...]would be derived from laying open this trade" - Reasons to end Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly
Scottish Jacobite writer has ghosts of Wolfe and Montcalm discuss their final, fatal and flawed campaigns in Seven Years War
Benjamin Franklin has some anonymous newspaper fun, relating Canadians' preparations for whaling and cod fishing in upper Great Lakes
References
