I am trying to chase down a lead of a slightly different kind. I live in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy. The source of the place name has always been a bit of mystery and I am trying to track down the source of the story...which may well be James Yuill.
Israel Longworth writes that James Yuill, in an attempt to get supplies for the settlement, sailed for Boston but was driven ashore in the place now named Scots Bay....so called because he and some of his crew were originally from Scotland...and here is what the story from Eaton says...
Historical Note:
�In 1764, three or four families located at Scots Bay and began the present settlement there, among them people of the name of Andrews and Loomer. Tradition has it that shortly before this a vessel with some Scotch emigrants sailed up the Bay of Fundy, its passengers intending to settle at Cape D�Or. In a squall the vessel was driven ashore at the present Scots Bay, where she lay stranded, her passengers and crew, however, being saved, For some time the shipwrecked people wandered helplessly about, but at last they came on a solitary hunter. The man gave them food and led some of them down the mountain, but these soon returned to their first landing place. During the winter that followed, the Scotchmen made frequent journeys into the valley for food, but what became of them in the end we do not know. From the temporary residents the place got its names Scots Bay.�1
1 Eaton, Arthur Wentworth Hamilton, M.A., D.C.L., The History of Kings County, Nova Scotia, Heart of the Acadian Land, The Salem Press Company, 1910.
I think this may well have been James Yuill and his crew. Any more evidence I could get my hands on would be appreciated. This has been a mystery long enough. Yuill deserves his due if it was indeed him.
Thanks in advance,
Ian McKay
ian@amimcaky.com