have accepted in the first place. Fitzroy appointed Charles Young in- stead. The average member of the House could not afford such an appointment. Members only got £30 per session, which would mean they would be working for practically nothing.
The census approved by the House was conducted in the ear- ly summer of 1841 but some of the results were lost over the years. There is no information for Lot 64, which is unfortunate. It would have been interesting to see how much the area had grown. All that survives is a note by the census taker describing conditions in the area.
Lot 64 Description (as transcribed from the original Census docu- ment)
“The land in Lot 64 is generally of an inferior quality, with the exception of the Southern part which is inferior to the Northern por- tion of the Lot.
The nearest Markets to Lot 64 are Pictou and Charlotte Town, the former 24 miles distant, and the latter about 40 miles which is only a Winter Market.
The Roads through the settlements are all very fair, with the ex- ception of the Road from White Sands to Little Sands which is yet in parts only a Bridle Path, and the Road towards Vernon River from Murray Mills which is rough and very hilly. This Lot enjoys good advantages with respect to water communications, as the South front of the lot is on the Strait of Northumberland and the North on the Murray River, with a small River called South River running two or three miles into and near the centre of the Lot.”
It seems the census taker was of the opinion that the Beck farm and others along the Strait were of below average quality compared with farmland in other parts of the province.
It now was almost 30 years since the Becks first arrived in PEI and Guernsey Cove was a much different community with much of the land now settled. The community had been growing slowly over the years, but got a big boost in the 1830s when many of the Guernsey people moved there from their original homes on Machon’s Point. By this time Vere was in his 60th year and most of his children were
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