Date Published:
April 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Samuel Vetch

Vetch, Samuel (1668-1732), governor of Nova Scotia (1710-17), was born in Scotland on December 6, 1668, the son of the Rev. William Vetch (or Veitch), a Covenanting minister who was compelled to flee in 1671 to England, and later to Holland. He was educated at the College of Utrecht, and returned to England in the army of William of Orange in 1688. He became an officer in the 26th or Cameronian Regiment, and served on the continent until 1697. In 1698 he took part in the unsuccessful attempt to found the Darien Colony; and in 1700 he went to New York. In 1705 he was sent on a diplomatic, mission to Quebec ; and in 1710 he was adjutant-general of the expedition sent to conquer Acadia . On the capture of Annapolis Royal, he was appointed the first English governor of Nova Scotia ; and he administered the affairs of the province until relieved of his appointment in 1717. His later years are obscure; but he died in London, England, on April 30, 1732, in a debtor's prison. In 1700 he married Margaret, daughter of Robert Livingstone, of New York. See Rev. G. Patterson, Hon. Samuel Vetch (Coll. Nova Scotia Hist. Soc., 1885), and J. C. Webster, Samuel Vetch (Shediac, New Brunswick, 1929).

Source: W. Stewart Wallace, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 237.