Sheriff Oliver struck off over eighty votes, and returned
the Upper Cove candidates. The election was protested,
but the House of Assembly refused, on a technicality, to
upset the election. A strangely ill-worded and ungrammatical
petition to have the assembly dissolved was presented to
the governor by the Lower Cove people, but Governor
Carleton refused to interfere, and the Upper Cove candidates
kept their seats. The incident created a great deal of
indignation in St John, and Ward Chipman and Jonathan
Bliss were not able for many years to obtain a majority
in that riding.

It is evident from these early records that, while there
were members of the oldest and most famous families in
British America among the Loyalists of the Thirteen
Colonies, the majority of those who came to Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, and especially to Upper Canada, were people
of very humble origin. Of the settlers in Nova Scotia,
Governor Parr expressed his regret 'that there is not a
sufficient proportion of men of education and abilities
among the present adventurers.' The election in St John
was a sufficient evidence of the strength of the democratic
element there; and their petition to Governor Carleton
is a sufficient evidence of their illiteracy. Some of
the settlers assumed pretensions to which they were not
entitled. An amusing case is that of William Newton. This
man had been the groom of the Honourable George Hanger,
a major in the British Legion during the war. Having come
to Nova Scotia, he began to pay court to a wealthy widow,
and introduced himself to her by affirming 'that he was