tune, near Souris, in Kings County. Bittermann says that Vere was
in the forefront of the Escheat movement from about 1830 onward.
Rather than a loose association of like-minded individuals, it turns
out the Escheat supporters were very well organized. They had local
committees throughout all three counties, under the direction of a
central committee. Bittermann says Vere served a term as the corres-
ponding secretary of the central committee and was active in other
ways.

In November, 1837, two thousand Islanders gathered in George-
town to voice their opposition to the land system in what to then was
the largest rally ever held in PEI. Vere is named among the leaders
who placed resolutions in front of the crowd. And Bittermann says
he was part of the committee that drew up the new land settlement
policies that emerged from the Georgetown rally. During the 1830s
Vere also wrote articles that were circulated among the settlers in
support of Escheat. Some of these articles written by Vere and other
movement leaders were combined in pamphlets and distributed in
the late 1830s.

All of this shows us that Vere was better educated than most rural
Islanders at that time and had the ability to express his arguments in
writing.

It was not much wonder that the group resorted to printing their
own pamphlets. Communication was almost non-existent at that
time. Bittermann quotes one Islander as saying newspapers “were al-
most worn out with the handing from one to another”

Vere said in a letter to the editor of the Royal Gazette in May, 1832,
that transportation problems and a lack of money made it difficult
for those in the Murray Harbour area to see a paper regularly. How-
ever, he added, whenever escheat was raised in the house those going
to Charlottetown made it a point to return with many copies of the
latest issue.

“When a neighbour was expected back from Charlottetown,” Vere
wrote, “he is hardly allowed to refresh himself before his house is
crowded.” He said he himself made a point of collecting every paper
containing the proceedings of the House that year, but he regretted

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