William Clapham

William Clapham (Clappan) was a Captain in the British Army who was stationed in Nova Scotia during Father Le Loutre’s War. He was appointed captain in Boston 1747 and sent to defend Annapolis along with Jedidiah Preble and Benjamin Goldthwait.[1][2] After the Raid on Dartmouth (1749), Clapham raised a company of 70 men to fight the Mi’kmaq.[3] Clapham relieved Gorham in the Battle at St. Croix.[4] He was involved in the Battle at Chignecto.[5]

The first raid on Halifax happened in October 1750, while in the woods on peninsular Halifax, Mi'kmaq scalped two British people and took six prisoner: Edward Cornwallis' gardener, his son, and Captain William Clapham's book keeper were tortured and scalped. The Mi'kmaq buried the son while the gardener's body was left behind and the other six persons were taken prisoner to Grand Pre for five months.[6][7]

Ezekiel (Eziekiel) Gilman abandoned the saw mill in the wake of the Raid on Dartmouth and Clapham took charge of it.[8] In the Raid on Dartmouth (1751), Captain Clapham and his company of Rangers were stationed on Blockhouse hill. He and the company are reported to have remained within the block-house firing from the loop-holes during the whole raid. A court martial was called on the 14th May, the day after the raid, to inquire into the conduct of the different commanding officers who allowed the village to be destroyed.[9] By June, Clapham's Sergeant had been acquitted.[10]

In the same year, Clapham was tried for killing a prisoner after having gagged him too tightly.[11]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=1375&terms=de
  2. ↑ Murdoch, Beamish. History of Nova Scotia, vol. 2, p. 121
  3. ↑ Murdoch, p. 162
  4. ↑ Murdoch, Beamish. History of Nova Scotia, vol. 2, p. 175
  5. ↑ John Salsbury. Journal. p. 89
  6. ↑ A genuine narrative of the transactions in Nova Scotia since the settlement, June 1749, till August the 5th, 1751 : in which the nature, soil, and produce of the country are related, with the particular attempts of the Indians to disturb the colony / by John Wilson p. 13
  7. ↑
    Atkins puts the month of this raid in July and writes that there were six British attacked, two were scalped and four were taken prisoner and never seen again. Thomas Atkins. History of Halifax City. Brook House Press. 2002 (reprinted 1895 edition). p 334
  8. ↑ Murdoch, Beamish. History of Nova Scotia, vol. 2, p. 181
  9. ↑ Akins, Thomas. History of Halifax, p. 28
  10. ↑ http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011439372;page=root;view=image;size=100;seq=369;orient=0;num=341
  11. ↑ http://books.google.ca/books?id=NcVZPgwoNvoC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=%22william+clapham%22+nova+scotia&source=bl&ots=-wzgLHd0Oe&sig=dg-sVhJr5pd_9OHu1Wh6vRc2YI4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SgEkU5T4CsHYrAGDkoCoAg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=%22william%20clapham%22%20nova%20scotia&f=false