A ‘sweeping’ timeline curated by Mary Lynn Smith.
 

A. Before the Province of New Brunswick was born.

Content in Bold/Italic format denotes a Charlotte Taylor event.

1534

• Jacques Cartier sights Newfoundland’s Cape Bona Vista after a three week crossing from France.  This was Cartier’s first voyage to Canada.
• Jacques Cartier enters the Baie de Chaleur (present-day northern New Brunswick) and does some trading with the native Indians.

1604

• Merchant venturer Pierre de Gua, Sieur de Monts and cartographer Samuel de Champlain set up a fur-trading base on Île Ste.-Croix (present-day southern New Brunswick and Maine).  During their first winter the 79 Frenchmen ran out of food and firewood, and scurvy took the lives of almost half of them. During the next summer many of the survivors moved from Île Ste.-Croix, and crossed the Bay of Fundy to Port-Royal (near Annapolis Royal – present-day Nova Scotia).

1605

• The new Port-Royal ‘Habitation’ saw Champlain found L’Ordre de Bon Temps (Order of Good Cheer), to relieve the harsh monotony of the long winter.  Port-Royal, sited on traditional Mi’kmaq territory, became one of the earliest European settlements in North America.

1607

• The Port-Royal ‘Habitation’ was abandoned when the Sieur de Monts’ trading monopoly was revoked by the King’s council.  The site was left in the care of Membertou, grand chief of the local Mi’kmaq.  

1608

• Samuel de Champlain establishes an ‘Habitation’ at Quebec.  28 settlers, including Champlain, wintered there.

1610

• The settlement at Port-Royal is revived with the return of an original colonist, Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt.  Jesuit missionaries become financial partners with Poutrincourt.

1613

• Captain Samuel Argall of Virginia, commissioned to expel all Frenchmen from territory claimed by England, arrives with a raiding party.  The Port-Royal ‘Habitation’ is looted and burned to the ground.  

1663

• Quebec becomes a Royal Province of France.

1693

• Mi’kmaq aboriginals force French settlers from the Bathurst area of the ‘Baie des Chaleurs.’

1702

• The decade-long War of the Spanish Succession begins in Europe.  England joins the conflict, to resist expansion of French power.  The War spreads to British and French colonies in North America.

1703

• Birth of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement.  Wesley was to become a vigorous religious reformer, urging the Protestant Church of England to remake itself from within.

1708

• French forces capture St. John’s Newfoundland.

1713

• Treaty of Utrecht ends the Spanish War of Succession.  The Treaty removed the prospect of France and Spain coming together to create a new European superpower.  France passes her claims to Acadia over to Britain, except for Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) and Île Saint-Jean (PEI).  France begins construction of Fortress Louisbourg.

1744

• King Louis XV of France formally declares war against Britain (as part of the War of the Austrian Succession 1744-1748).  The French king launches a large invasion force against Britain, from Dunkirk.  This force was partly wrecked and driven back into harbour by violent storms.  

1745

• The French fortress at Louisbourg (Île Royale) surrenders to a force of 4,000 New Englanders, with Royal Navy support.

1748

• The Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.  England gives the captured French fortress at Louisbourg back to France, in exchange for Madras, India (Madras had been captured by the French in 1746).  The New Englanders who had captured Louisbourg in 1745 were infuriated by this British trade-off. 

1749

• Britain founds Halifax as a garrison town to counter the French presence at Fort Louisbourg.

1752

• Last day in Britain for use of the Julian calendar.  It was replaced on 2 September 1752 by the Gregorian calendar (an advance of eleven days).

1751-1753

• Possible year of Charlotte’s birth if she died at age 89. Her birth date, in this case, would be between 1751-1752.  A St. Andrews newspaper obituary stated that she died at the age of 89.  (Reference: The St. Andrews Standard, April 27, 1841). Her death was on the 25th of April 1841.
     
• Possible year of Charlotte’s birth if she died at age 88.  Her birth date, in this case, would be between 1752-1753.  A Fredericton newspaper obituary stated that her passing was in her 89th year (Reference: Royal Gazette, Fredericton, N.B., May 5, 1841).  Her death was on the 25th of April 1841.

1754

• Beginning of the French and Indian War in North America.  The French and British empires are locked in a violent struggle to secure territorial and economic dominance.    

1755

• Possible year of Charlotte’s birth according to an inscription on a recent memorial marker at Riverside Cemetery, Tabusintac, New Brunswick.  It is noted that the 1840 death date shown on this memorial is provably an error, casting doubt on the 1755 birth date. 
• British forces begin to expel Acadians from Nova Scotia.

1756

• England officially declares war on France, after years of fighting between the two empires in North America.  The Seven Years War is later described by Winston Churchill as being . . . ‘the first global war.’ 
• Montcalm assumes command of French troops in North America.

1757

• The East India Company defeats the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies at the Battle of Plassey.  This outcome signals the beginning of two centuries of British rule in India. 

1758

• Louisbourg is captured by British forces (Generals Amherst and Wolfe).
• Election of the first representative House of Assembly (in what was to become Canada) on May 20th in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• James Wolfe commands an expedition against French settlements on the Baie des Chaleurs (New Brunswick).
• Destruction of Burnt Church (Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign – Seven Years War).

1759

• Robert Burns, the great and intemperate Scottish poet and lyricist, is born.
• General James Wolfe anchors off Ile d’Orleans below Quebec City, with 8,500 men, 49 men-of-war and 200 other vessels under Admiral Charles Saunders and chief navigator Captain James Cook.
• Wolfe takes Quebec by defeating Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham.
  Both Generals, Wolfe and Montcalm, are killed.
• Articles of Capitulation, at Quebec on September 18th.  Though not the last battle of the Seven Years War, or of the French and Indian War, the surrender of Quebec foreshadowed the French Empire’s loss of North America.

1760

• A French naval force is defeated by the British at the mouth of the Restigouche River, in the last naval battle to take place in New France.
• World’s first jigsaw puzzle is invented in London, England by Charlotte Finch, Governess of George IV, who used the ‘dissecting maps’ of continents and countries as a teaching aid. Does South America ‘fit’ with west Africa?

1762

• Catherine the Second (Catherine the Great) becomes Czarina of Russia.

1763

• Establishment of an unofficial English community at the Township of Maugerville, along the St. John River (New Brunswick).  Two hundred plantar families from Massachusetts came there, led by Israel Perley.
• First Treaty of Paris on February 10th.  France gives up all of the mainland of North America east of the Mississippi to Britain.  The small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (off Newfoundland) are left to France as unfortified shelters for French fishermen.
• The Royal Proclamation on October 7th provided a system of government for the newly-acquired French territories.  This Proclamation created four distinct governments: for East and West Florida, Grenada, and Quebec (the new name given to Canada).  Land was set aside for use by aboriginal peoples, and the  British government was given the exclusive right to negotiate treaties.

1765

• Stamp Act passed by the British Parliament, and imposed on American colonists. Colonial opponents of the Stamp Act considered this law to be ‘taxation without representation.’ 
• Commodore George Walker establishes a trading post at Alston Point (Bathurst, New Brunswick).

1766

• Sir John Wentworth, a New Hampshire ‘royal’, is appointed Governor of New Hampshire and Surveyor General of the King’s Woods in America.

1767

• The Townshend Acts replace the Stamp Act.  New duties on tea, paint, paper, lead, and glass to be paid by American colonists.

1768

• Guy Carleton succeeds James Murray as Governor of Quebec.

1773

• The Boston Tea Party protest.  A response to the unpopularity of the Tea Tax imposed by the Britain on her American colonies.  An entire consignment of British East India Company tea, in 342 chests, was thrown into Boston harbour.

1774 

• The Quebec Act provided a framework for maintenance of French Canadian liberties in Canada, including religious freedom (Roman Catholic Church) and civil law (French Civil Code).  Canada’s boundaries extended to the Ohio River.

1775

• Presumptive date of death for Charlotte’s partner Mr. Williams/Williamson, father of Elizabeth.
• Probable year of birth, in the Colony of Nova Scotia, of Charlotte Taylor’s eldest child Elizabeth Williams or Williamson.
• American Revolutionary War (1775-83) begins.
• Montreal is captured by American forces led by General Richard Montgomery, and then Quebec is attacked by Gen. Montgomery (arriving from Montreal) and by Colonel Benedict Arnold (arriving from Maine).  Guy Carleton refuses to surrender Quebec to the Americans, and defeats their attack on 31 December.  General Montgomery is killed, and Colonel Arnold is wounded.
• The British lose a large number of men during the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
• James Watt (Scottish inventor) perfects the steam engine.

1776

• Presumed year of Charlotte Taylor’s arrival in Miramichi area (New Brunswick), circa 1776-1777, and marriage to Captain John Blake.

1778

• A Franco-American military Alliance signed, to oppose Britain.  France provides supplies and other support to help American revolutionaries.
• Captain Cook, the great explorer, navigator, and cartographer, visits Nootka Sound (North West Pacific Coast of North America).
• Birth of John Blake, son of John Blake and Charlotte Taylor, circa 1778, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.  His death occurred between 1813 and 1832.

1779

• ‘Kidnapping of the Micmac Chiefs,’ Miramichi River.  HMS Viper, Captain John Augustus Hervey. 
• ‘Treaty of Peace’ concluded between Capt. Hervey and John Julian on 20 July – John Julian declared Chief of the Miramichi Indians. 

 1780

• Complete darkness covers the day sky in Eastern Canada and New England at 2:00 p.m. on May 19th.  The cause of this phenomenon is unknown.
• Birth of Jane ‘Mary Jane’ Blake, circa 1780, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.  Jane was arguably the daughter or adopted daughter of John Blake and Charlotte Taylor. 

1781

• Lord Cornwallis’ British forces surrender to American forces at Yorktown.

1783

• Second Treaty of Paris.  Britain recognizes the independence of its former thirteen American Colonies.  The American insurrection (the American Revolutionary War) ends.
• Sir John Wentworth escapes from his New Hampshire home and arrives in Nova Scotia to become Surveyor of the King’s Woods.
• Loyalist refugees escape from American territory, in large numbers.  Around 30,000 Loyalists arrive in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and PEI.  Parrtown (later Saint John, New Brunswick) and Shelburne, Nova Scotia become the principal loyalist settlements.
• Birth of Robert Blake, circa 1782-1783, son of John Blake and Charlotte Taylor, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.

B. After the birth of the Province of New Brunswick.

1784

• The Colony of Nova Scotia is divided into three parts.  The area of Nova Scotia beyond the Bay of Fundy, known as the County of Sunbury, becomes the separate Colony of New Brunswick.  Cape Breton also becomes a Colony.
• Thomas Carleton becomes New Brunswick’s first lieutenant-Governor.  Carleton recognized as a founding father of New Brunswick.

1785

• Trial by jury begins in Canada with adoption of British common law.
• Fredericton (formerly St. Anne’s Point) becomes the capital of the Colony of New Brunswick.
• Death of Captain John Blake, circa 1783-1785, husband of Charlotte Blake (nee Taylor).

1786

• Birth of William Wishart, circa 1786-1787, son of William Wishart and Charlotte Taylor, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.
• Presumptive year of death of William Wishart, circa 1786, partner of Charlotte Taylor. 

1787

• Marriage of Charlotte Blake (nee Taylor) and Philip Hierlihy on September 11th.
• Birth of Eleanor Hierlihy, circa 1787, daughter of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.  Her death seemingly occurred before 1851.

1788

• Australia’s First Fleet (with more than 700 convicts) arrives.  Eleven ships and 1,400 people establish the first European settlements in Botany Bay and Sydney. 

1789

• The French Revolution begins.
• Birth of Philip Hierlihy, circa 1788-1789, son of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.

1790

• Maximilien de Robespierre, architect of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, supports the concepts of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.  Paradoxically, he encourages the execution of 17,000 ‘enemies of the Revolution’, mostly by guillotine.  

1791

• The Constutional Act divides Quebec into Lower and Upper Canada.  Assemblies are created for both.  Freehold land tenure is established in Upper Canada.
• Birth of James William Hierlihy, circa 1791, son of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.  Death occurred after 1861.
• Marriage of Elizabeth Williams/Williamson, daughter of Charlotte Taylor, to Duncan Robertson on September 22nd.
• Death of John Wesley, the founder of the  Methodist movement, at age 88. Wesley’s evangelism focused on charity, i.e.,  support for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted.

1792

• Benjamin Marston, past First Sheriff of Miramichi, dies on 10 August 1792, of Malaria fever.  He was buried in an unmarked grave on Bullom Island (off the coast of West Africa). 
• Sir John Wentworth appointed Governor of Nova Scotia.
• Louis XVI (‘Citizen Louis Capet’, husband of Marie Antoinette) is put to death by the ‘national razor’ at Temple Prison in Paris, France.
• Captain George Vancouver begins his methodical Survey of the North American Pacific coast.
• Birth of Honour (Honoria) Hierlihy, circa 1792, daughter of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor, in Black Brook, New Brunswick. 

1793

• Alexander Mackenzie, one of Canada’s greatest explorers, reaches the Pacific Ocean.  Mackenzie was the first European to cross North America overland.  The Mackenzie, the longest river system in Canada, is named in his honour.
• Great Britain declares war on Republican France.
• Queen Marie Antoinette (Madame Deficit) is charged with ‘multiple crimes’ and is beheaded by guillotine in Paris.
• The Upper Canada Assembly passes an Act enabling public servants to perform marriages.

1794

• Robert Burns’ poem Auld Lang Syne is published.
• Birth of Charlotte Mary Hierlihy, circa 1794, daughter of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor, in Black Brook, New Brunswick.

1795

• Death of the Dauphin Louis Charles (Louis XVII) of tuberculosis at Temple Prison, Paris, France.  Louis Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, had his  death and parentage conclusively proven by recent DNA testing on fragments of the Dauphin’s mummified heart.

1796

• Edward Jenner discovers vaccination for smallpox.  Smallpox was a leading cause of death during the 18th century. 
• Sighting of ‘unidentified flying objects’ off New Mines (New Minas), Nova Scotia. This incident, relayed to Simeon Perkins, was subsequently described in his Diary.  Fifteen ships, with a man forward – hands stretched out – were seen ‘in the air’ by three individuals. Considered by some to be the first UFO sighting in North America.  Could the world’s highest tides (16 meters/53 feet), and morning mist and fog, have contributed to this ‘flying ship’ vision?       

1799

• Death of George Washington, first President of the United States, on December 14th, of a severe throat inflammation.  The death occurred at Mount Vernon on the outskirts of Washington.  The funeral cortege (December 16th) included a riderless white horse, pallbearers, soldiers, and other mourners.  Guns were fired from a schooner anchored in the river.  Christmas decorations were removed from his house as death approached.  Staff and others closed window shutters and draped mirrors with black cloth.  Flags flew at half mast.

1800

• UNB (the University of New Brunswick) receives its original seal.  This came after  the granting of a provincial charter which named the institution as the College of New Brunswick.

1802-1803

• Temporary peace between Britain and Napoleonic France.
• Henry Shrapnel invents the shrapnel shell.

1802

• Death of Philip Hierlihy, circa 1802-1804, husband of Charlotte Taylor.

1805

• Battle of Trafalgar.  Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats the French and Spanish fleets in a major victory off the southwest coast of Spain (Cape Trafalgar).  While Nelson was mortally wounded by a sniper during the battle, the success of his battle fleet assured British naval supremacy for more than 100 years.

1808

• Sir John Wentworth replaced as Governor of Nova Scotia by Sir George Prevost.
• Simon Fraser explores the silt-laden river that now bears his name, and descends the river all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

1810

• Marriage (circa) of Charlotte Mary Hierlihy, daughter of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Hierlihy (nee Taylor), to Benjamin Stymiest.

1812

• President James Madison signs an American declaration of war against Britain on 18 June, and the War of 1812 begins.  Canada is quickly subjected to American attack.
• American Brigadier General William Hull surrenders his 2,000 man army to Major-General Issac Brock and Shawnee chief Tecumseh.  Hull’s ‘surrender without a fight’ delivers a severe blow to American morale.  
• The Red River Colony is founded by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, near the Red and Assiniboine rivers in Canada’s Northwest.

1813

• United States Army General Zebulon Pike departs Fort Niagara after burning the parliament buildings in York, and looting the town.
• Battle of Beaver Dams on June 23.  Laura Secord, leading a cow, passes American sentries and walks thirty-two miles to warn British, aboriginal, and Canadian defenders of the impending attack.  The Americans are defeated.
• Riots occur in protest against Highland clearances, as landless Scottish tenants are forcibly removed from their tenant farms to make room for sheep.
• Jane Austen writes Pride and Prejudice. 

1814

• The United States Capitol building and the White House are torched by British military forces. 
• British, English and French-Canadians, and First Nations allies successfully resist would-be American conquerers.
• Treaty of Ghent on December 24 ends the War of 1812-14. 

1815

• Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon defeated by Wellington and Blucker (central Belgium).

1816

• “The Year Without a Summer” begins on June 5th in North America, after the eruption of volcanoes in the Caribbean and South Pacific.  Around the Great Lakes the temperature drops from 30 degrees C to 5 degrees C, within hours, and 25 cm of snow falls the next day in New England. 

1818

• The 49th Parallel is accepted as Canada’s border with the United States, from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains.
• Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein.
• Marriage of James William Hierlihy, son of Charlotte Hierlihy (nee Taylor), to Louiza Urquhart on January 2nd.

1820

• Death of King George III on January 29th.
• Death of Sir John Wentworth in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 8th.  Democratic elements in the Province hoped that Nova Scotia might now become  a Province less influenced by the ‘governor’s perogative.’    
• Sir Walter Scott writes Ivanhoe.

1822

• American Charles Graham is awarded a patent for his design for false teeth.
• English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowns off the Italian coast at the age of 29. This sad event occurred while he was sailing his small schooner to La Spezia, after visiting the poet Byron at Livorno.

1823

• Louis-Joseph Papineau and John Neilson present a petition in London to oppose the proposed union of Upper and Lower Canada.

1825

• On October 5th the Great Fire of New Brunswick destroys the towns of Newcastle and Douglastown.

1826

• Formation of Gloucester County, New Brunswick.

1828

• St. Peter’s becomes Bathurst, New Brunswick (shiretown of Gloucester County).
• Marriage of Philip Hierlihy, son of Charlotte Hierlihy (nee Taylor), to Jane Lewis on September 28th.

1829

• Shanawdithit, the last known survivor of the Beothuk Indians, dies in St. John’s, Newfoundland on June 6th.

1830

• The Book of Mormon, translated by Joseph Smith Junior, is published. Mormonism begins to spread rapidly. 

1833

• Passenger Ship Lady of the Lakes sinks on May 11th, after striking an iceberg en route to Quebec from England.  215 souls were lost.
• Slavery is outlawed in most British colonies by the Slavery Abolition Act.  This legislation was foreshadowed in 1807 by the abolishment of the slave trade.

1837

• Failure of the Second Bank of the United States causes ‘the Panic of 1837’.  This  liquidity crisis wiped out scores of small banks, businesses, and farmers.  In New York the militia had to be called out to keep order on Wall Street.
• Unsuccessful rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada  are led by Mackenzie and Papineau.
• Louis Braille invents his reading system for the blind.
• Princess Victoria becomes Queen Victoria of England at age 18, on the death of her uncle, King William IV. 

1838

• Founding of Northumberland Agricultural Society.  In October the first Ploughing Match was held.
• Saint John News – First Penny Newspaper in British Empire.  Founded by George E. Fenety.

1840

• 5,000 people gather at Miramichi to celebrate Queen Victoria’s wedding.  To support the event a sports stadium is built, an ox is roasted whole, and puncheons of ale are made available.
• Transatlantic Steamship Line commences a regular schedule between England and Nova Scotia.
• New Brunswick’s Census 1840 is undertaken. 

1841

• Lieutenant Governor Sir William Colebrook arrives in Fredericton, New Brunswick in April before departure of predecessor Sir John Harvey.
• Death of Charlotte Hierlihy (nee Taylor) on Sunday morning April 25th at Tabusintac, New Brunswick.
• On May 17 large boulders from Cap Diamant tumbled down the precipitous cliffs above Lower Town in Quebec City.  Eight houses were demolished and thirty-two people were killed.
• The Act of Union unites Upper and Lower Canada.

1842

• Webster-Ashburton Treaty settles boundary between Maine and New Brunswick (after a protracted dispute).
• Canada’s first Museum is founded in Saint John, New Brunswick.

1843

• On 7 July 1843 John Mark Crank DESLESDERNIERS passed away, age 89, at the residence of his son in Vandreuil, Quebec.  He was a former agent of early Miramichi settlers, who anglicized his surname to Ledurney.

1844

• On 27 June Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Mormon Church, was murdered in jail by an anti-Mormon mob, in Carthage, Illinois.  Brigham Young, with his purported/disputed New Brunswick Queen’s County New Brunswick connection, became Smith’s successor.  Young led Mormon pioneers to Utah’s Salt Lake Valley. 

1845

• Failure of the potato crop in Ireland (The Great Irish Potato Famine).

1846

• Great Britain enters into a Limited Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

1847

• Dr. John Vondy, health officer at the Middle Island quarantine station (two miles from Chatham), dies on 2 July at age 26.  Dr. Vondy gave his life helping suffering refugees.  Many Irish immigrant passengers contracted typhus during and after their difficult Atlantic voyages.  Immigrant coffin ships, like the Looshtauk, the Richard White, and the barque Bolivar, unloaded their human cargo at Middle Island in the Miramichi River.

1848

• Achievement of ‘responsible government’ in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
• Gold discoveries in California lead to a major gold rush.

1849

• Achievement of ‘responsible government’ in Canada.
• The 49th Parallel (international boundary) is extended to the Pacific Ocean.
• Canada begins its policy of official bilingualism.

1851

• Telegraph cable laid across Northumberland Strait  from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.
• The terrible ‘Yankee Gale’ destroyed most of the New England fishing fleet. 74 ships were destroyed and 150 sailors lost their lives in less than three days.  
• New Brunswick Census 1851.
• Britain transfers control of the Colonial postal system to Canada.
• Death of William Wishart, son of William Wishart and Charlotte Taylor, at Tabusintac, New Brunswick on April 26th.

1852

• Death of Philip Hierlihy, son of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor, at Tabusintac, New Brunswick, on May 27th.

1853

• Death of Robert Blake, son of John Blake and Charlotte Taylor, on August 21st.

1854

• Reciprocity Treaty between Canada and the United States is signed on
  June 6th.

1855

• Death of Joseph Russell on 10 March at Great Salt Lake City, Utah.  Russell was a major financial backer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints/Mormon Church, and a confidant of its leader Brigham Young.  He and his family had migrated to Utah from the Miramichi area some ten years after their conversion to Mormonism, circa 1841. 

1856

• Death of Elizabeth Williams/Williamson Robertson, circa 1856, daughter of Charlotte Taylor and Mr. Williams/Williamson, in Tabusintac, New Brunswick. 

1857

• Ottawa is named Canada’s Capital by Queen Victoria.
• First Neanderthal skeleton found in a cave near Dusseldorf Germany.  Everyone living outside of Africa to-day carries a small amount of Neanderthal DNA. 

1858

• American abolitionist John Brown holds an anti-slavery convention at Chatham, Ontario.
• The Province of Canada mints first coins – pennies, nickels, dimes, and twenty-
  cent pieces.

1860

• Placement of the cornerstone of the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.
• Hundreds of thousands of Irish and British immigrants flood into North America in the aftermath of the Irish potato famine (otherwise known as The Great Hunger).

1861

• New Brunswick Census 1861.
• The Grand Trunk Railway connects the Province of Canada to the Halifax, Nova Scotia. 
• The American Civil War begins.

1864

• The Charlottetown Conference held from September 1-9.  The first steps toward Confederation are taken.
• The Quebec Conference, held from October 10-27, sets out a framework for the union of Canadian provinces.

1866

• Abrogation of Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 by the United States.
• The London Conference on December 4 passes resolutions which are re-drafted to become the British North America Act.

1867

• New Brunswick joins Confederation (as one of four original Provinces – Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick).  The Dominion of Canada is created on July 1.
• Sir John A. Macdonald is elected as Canada’s first Prime Minister.
• Mount Allison University becomes the first in Canada to confer a degree on a woman.
• Joseph Lister performs first surgical operation under antiseptic conditions, on his sister Isabella, at Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary in Scotland.

1869

• Death of Jane ‘Mary Jane’ Blake McRae, presumed ‘daughter’ of John Blake and Charlotte Taylor, on 30 April, in Chatham, New Brunswick.  

1870

• Louis Riel leads a Metis up-rising against Canadian authority in Canada’s Northwest.
• The Manitoba Act creates the Province of Manitoba.

1871

• New Brunswick Census 1871.
• New Brunswick Common Schools Act.
• British Columbia joins Confederation.
• Anna Swan, of Nova Scotia, at 7-foot-5, marries Martin Buren, of Kentucky, at
  7-foot-2, making them the world’s tallest married couple.
• Charlotte Stymist (nee Hierlihy) was ennumerated as a Mormon. Charlotte Stymist was the daughter of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor. 
• Death of Honour (Honoria) Hierlihy Murray Gay, circa 1871, daughter of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor.  

1873

• Prince Edward Island joins Confederation.

1874

• Death of Charlotte Mary Hierlihy Stymiest, daughter of Philip Hierlihy and Charlotte Taylor, on 28 October.

1876

• Completion of Inter-Colonial Railway linking central Canada and the Maritimes, on July 1.
• Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone message is transmitted.
• The Indian Act of 1876 gives separate status to Canadian aboriginal people.

1899

• Six of Brigham Young’s twenty-six wives celebrate his posthumous birthday on the 1st of June in Salt Lake City.  The second President of the Mormon Church,  Brigham Young is recognized as a great colonizer, whose methods enabled the ‘against-all-odds’ reclamation and settlement of unoccupied lands in the Great American Desert.  He led people to that seemingly promised land from diverse places, including Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada.  Charlotte Mary, the namesake daughter of Charlotte Taylor and her husband Philip Hierlihy, was notably a Mormon adherent in the year 1871.
• Canada’s first dispatch of troops to an oversea war, the Boer War (1899-1902). The 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment of Infantry is Canada’s first volunteer unit.  267 Canadians never come home from South Africa.