John Coape Sherbrooke

General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, GCB (baptised 29 April 1764 – 14 February 1830) was a British soldier and colonial administrator. After serving in the British army in Nova Scotia, the Netherlands, India, the Mediterranean (including Sicily), and Spain, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia in 1811. During the War of 1812, his policies and victory in the conquest of present-day Maine, renaming it the colony of New Ireland, led to significant prosperity in Nova Scotia.

He served under the Duke of Wellington as a Major General in the Peninsular War from 1807 until his reassignment to Nova Scotia. Simultaneously, he was a Lieutenant General of Portuguese forces.

Sherbrooke arrived at Halifax on 16 October 1812 as commander of the forces in the Atlantic provinces. The five years of Sherbrooke’s administration were dominated by war with the United States, which broke out in June 1812, and matters relating to the colony’s defence. He mounted guns at harbour entrances across the colony and placed the militias in a state of readiness. The war proved to be profitable for Nova Scotia. Sherbrooke’s commercial policies turned the Atlantic provinces into a thriving entrepôt for international trade.

From 1813–1830 Sherbrooke was Colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot.

Deciding to strike at the long-disputed borderland between Passamaquoddy Bay and the Penobscot River, Sherbrooke led an expeditionary force that August which successfully landed at Castine and proceeded to subdue the entire region between the Penobscot and the St Croix. He renamed the region the colony of New Ireland. The eight-month occupation of Castine yielded customs revenues which were subsequently used to finance the Cambridge Military Library in Halifax and found Dalhousie College.

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