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Read before the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society 15 October 2003
Historians' view of Joshua Mauger today has changed little in the two generations since John Bartlet Brebner analyzed the political behaviour of those he called "the neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia."1 Brebner's unsurpassed account of the politics of Nova Scotia between 1749 and 1776 remains as fresh and vigorous as the day it was published sixty-six years ago. Nevertheless, his conclusions as they relate to Joshua Mauger need substantial revision.
Brebner's views are a matter of concern principally for two reasons. His conclusions have been widely adopted-and not just about Mauger-while no one since has revisited the question in anything like the same detail or with the same confidence. The best evidence for the influence of Brebner's interpretation is found in the entries in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography for some two dozen individuals dominant in Nova Scotia's politics, society, and economy during the quarter-century after 1749. Frequently such men are described as being either part of Mauger's web or his enemy. A scaled-down version of Brebner's Mauger was popularized by Thomas Raddall, the widely read novelist-historian. In his hands, Mauger's early fortune, derived from the slave trade, quickly dominated Halifax: a fish station on McNab's Island, a rum distillery, a warehouse and shop, a chain of trading posts besides a naval contract, and smuggling trade to Louisbourg. "Mauger's money and influence in Britain talked louder than the governor's furious dispatches," Raddall wrote.2 He carried on "like an evil spider with a web reaching into every part of the province, to the West Indies, and to Britain." Raddall's Mauger retired to England with a fortune exceeding a half million sterling.3 Almost every phrase Raddall wrote about Mauger is fiction.
To Brebner, Joshua Mauger was the principal manipulator of Nova Scotia's politics to 1775. This is a gross exaggeration. After a dozen years in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, Mauger retired to England in 1760 where, within two years, he was named agent for the Nova Scotia assembly. Brebner failed to point out that Mauger held this post for only two years and never received a salary Even his expenses went unpaid. A £50 piece of plate was the only reward he ever received...