PATTERSON
family
of Sunny Bank
One of the oldest families of the Gaspe Peninsula, the Patterson's, have descended from two emigrants of the British Isles. John and William, of no known relationship, left their homeland well over two hundred years ago. Both settled in Gaspe, less than five miles apart, and today both have descendants spread throughout the world.
John Paterson (spelled with one "t" on the original census of Gaspe) was born in Scotland around 1730. The first recorded incident of his life which I have to located is that he was commissioned as an officer in the British Armed Forces on May 4, 1761. He served in the 15th Regiment of Foot under Major-General Jeoffrey Amherst until March 24, 1767.
Other sources suggest that he had settled in Gaspe earlier. In 1765 John Paterson is included on a list of Protestant house-keepers in Quebec. (Quebec referred to all territory east of Quebec City). Secondly, in a land claim of 1793, Felix O'Hara states that John Paterson had resided in Gaspe for 29 years. This would establish his arrival at 1764. In addition, after extensive research, Raymond Patterson suggested that John arrived here about 1764.
The most convincing source is the census of Gaspe to Baie Verte taken in 1765. It included as one of the inhabitants of Gaspe "Jon Paterson" who had in his household 1 adult male, 1 adult female, 1 male child (under 15) and 3 female children. This indicates that he certainly resided in Gaspe by 1765 although maybe only seasonally. It also suggests that he had been married by 1760 or 1761.
No records have yet been uncovered concerning his marriage. Nothing exists in St. Paul's Anglican Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Richard Ascah, a close friend of his, had been married on Sept. 5, 1757. It is quite possible that John's marriage was performed by a travelling minister and was never officially recorded, or was lost. Another strong possibility is that he may have been married somewhere in the United States. However, even family tradition provides no clue as to his wife’s nationality.
In 1768 John Paterson was appointed bailiff of Gaspe. The position of bailiff was similar to that of a policeman, road inspector, and coroner combined. He was responsible for law and order and to ensure highways were well maintained. Neither of these would have presented much problem, as only a few families lived in the entire Gaspe region, and there were certainly no roads to be maintained. Probably due to the vastness of the region Richard Ascah, who settled in Peninsula about the same year, was appointed sub-bailiff.
The last recorded event in his life is the inclusion of his name on the census of 1777, taken by Nicholas Cox. He was listed at that time as having 2 male children under 16 and one female over 16. It appears that he was still alive when his eldest son, Peter, claimed land on the east side of his father’s in 1793.
The actual life of John Paterson in Gaspe is very obscure. It is known that he was one of the first permanent English settlers in Gaspe, along with Richard Ascah and Felix O’Hara. He undoubtedly was a hard working, resourceful man, with a great deal of courage to homestead in a place where the land is so rugged, and climate so forbidding. Simply providing for a family would have been a year round job in the absence of electricity, machinery, and even roads, all so essential today. Certainly socializing was quite restricted. Even a decade later, in 1777, there were only three families residing around the Gaspe Bay. They did, however, have contact with the outside world during summer when fishermen from Europe and other parts of North America came to fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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"Sunny Bank, Our Ancestral Home"
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