Gamaliel Smethurst

Who is Gamaliel Smethurst?

Gamaliel Smethurst was a New England Planters who wrote one of the rare captivity narratives from Nova Scotia and eventually became a politician in Nova Scotia. He represented Cumberland County in the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia from 1765 to 1770.

He was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the son of Captain Joseph Smethurst and Tabitha Skinner. In 1761, Smethurst travelled to Chaleur Bay to trade with the French and natives under a license from the military governor of Quebec, James Murray. Smethurst was abandoned by the captain, who was apparently afraid of the natives of the region, and so was forced to make his way to Fort Cumberland. Smethurst returned to Marblehead by way of Halifax but, in 1763, received a land grant in Cumberland County. He served as customs comptroller and deputy surveyor of woods. Not long after his term in the Nova Scotia assembly, he moved to London, England.

In 1774, he published A narrative of an extraordinary escape: out of the hands of the Indians, in the Gulph of St. Lawrence describing his earlier voyage to Chaleur Bay.