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OLD NOVA SCOTIA IN 1783
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barked for England, where, after passing a satisfactory examination, he was ordained by the Bishop of Peterborough. The mid-winter voyage, tempestuous as it proved, was not more disagreeable than the presence of "unmannerly, drunken, profane and licentious companions on ship-board." On his return to America, Mr. Bailey at once entered upon his duties as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Pownalborough, on the Kennebeck river. Here he laboured with success for nearly twenty years. Then came the American Revolution, an event that sadly marred the tranquility of his situation. Jacob Bailey was a Tory, and the majority of his neighbors were Whigs. As early as September, 1774, he was insulted and mobbed, and obliged to flee from his house at night to escape the violence of the "Sons of Liberty." This was but the commencement of a series of persecutions. Mr. Bailey quaintly observes: "My neighbors were so zealous for the good of their country that they killed seven of my sheep out of twelve, and shot a fine heifer as she was feeding in my pasture." His necessities were so great in the following winter that he was obliged to dispose of the remainder of his cattle, except one cow.

At length, after repeated attempts had been made upon his life, he yielded to the inevitable necessity of abandoning his home, and sought refuge in Nova Scotia. He arrived at Halifax with his family in June, 1779, cherishing a resolute determination of returning to Pownalborough as soon as the British arms should have triumphantly subdued the "rebellion." Needless to say, the long hoped for day never came. After a sojourn of more than two years at Cornwallis, he removed to Annapolis in the summer of 1782, where he was rector of the parish until his death in 1808.


The Reverend Jacob Bailey's pen was seldom idle, and his writings were of a very miscellaneous character. Much that he wrote has been lost, but enough remains to show