Samuel Holland
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Samuel Johannes Holland (1728 – 28 December 1801) was a Royal Engineer and first Surveyor General of British North America.
–==Life in the Netherlands==
Holland was born in 1728 in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
In 1745, he entered the Dutch artillery and served during the War of the Austrian Succession and was promoted lieutenant in 1747.
In 1749, Holland married Gertrude Hasse, and they had one daughter, who is thought to have died in infancy.
In 1754, having possibly made contact with the Duke of Richmond, Samuel Holland emigrated to England to seek advancement under the British flag, leaving his wife behind in the Netherlands.
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[edit] Early years in British North America
In 1756, Holland, probably with Richmond's aid, became a lieutenant in the Royal Americans, coming to British North America where he would spend the rest of his life. Arriving in the New World, Holland, along with others, prepared a map of New York province that would be widely used for twenty years.
In 1757, he was promoted captain lieutenant and assigned to reconnoitre Fort Carillon, near Ticonderoga, New York, but in early 1758 he was transferred as assistant, engineer to the expedition against Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island in the colony of Nova Scotia.
During the attack on Louisbourg, Holland made surveys of the surrounding area and prepared plans as well as give engineering advice under the command of Brigadier-General James Wolfe. Following Louisbourg's capitulation, Holland was strongly commended by Wolfe to the Duke of Richmond.
That winter, Holland and his new pupil, James Cook, drew charts of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Saint Lawrence River in preparation of the attack on Quebec. He also supervised the construction of Fort Frederick in Saint John, New Brunswick.
He was promoted captain in 1759 and participated actively in the siege of Quebec, narrowly escaping death on one occasion when his boats were nearly run down by a schooner.
Wounded during the attack on Quebec, Holland was later employed in surveying the settled parts of the Saint Lawrence valley and in drawing up new plans for a citadel in Quebec after the French siege was lifted.
[edit] Surveyor General
In 1762, Holland took his maps to London where he submitted them to the Board of Trade, proposing a survey of all British possessions in North America in order to facilitate settlement, a proposal which was finally accepted in 1764.
On March 6 of that year, Holland was appointed surveyor general of Quebec. On March 23, he received instructions to survey all British possessions north of the Potomac River, which included St. John's Island, the Magdalen Islands and Cape Breton Island, because of their importance for the fisheries.
Holland arrived in October of 1764 on St. John's Island, later known as Prince Edward Island, after the territory was ceded to Britain by France under the Treaty of Paris in 1763. This task lasted two years. Holland's survey divided the island into a series of townships known as "lots", parishes, counties, and "royalties" (shire towns) in advance of a feudal land system which was established on the island over the following century.
In 1767 he even proposed that British explorers look for a northwest passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, but the proposal was never taken into great consideration.
Holland was later given a parcel of land on the St. John's Island, Lot 28, settled by farmers. Holland charged very little as an absentee landlord.
Samuel Holland died at Quebec, Lower Canada in 1801.
Holland College, the community college system for Prince Edward Island, is named for him.
[edit] Family Life
Holland had begun living in Quebec as early as 1762 with then 21-year old Marie-Joseph Rollet. Their first son, John Frederick, was born on St. John's Island.
Although his separation from Gertrude Hasse had been amicable, he had still payed her an annual allowance between 1756 to 1780. Following this, Hasse petitioned the British government in 1784 to force him to renew payments, but she was refused.
It is approximately around the time of 1772 that Holland's marriage to Rollet was contracted as legal and the couple would eventually establish a family of ten children.
[edit] External links
Samuel Johannes Holland was baptized on 22 September 1729 in the small Lutheran Church in the Dutch town of Deventer in the Province of Overijssel.
