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Dictionary of Miramichi Biography

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GIFFORD, JOHN (1851-1875)

GIFFORD, JOHN, casualty of the Caraquet riots; b. Newcastle, 6 Jul 1851, s/o John Gifford Sr and Jane Johnston; unmarried; d. Caraquet, N.B., 27 Jan 1875.

The son of a Newcastle blacksmith, John Gifford was one of a party of twenty volunteers recruited on the Miramichi to help Gloucester County authorities quell the Caraquet riots of 1875. The rioters were a tiny faction from among the many Acadians in Caraquet and elsewhere who were opposed to the payment of the school taxes which had been mandated by the Common Schools Act of 1871.

When the volunteer contingent of which Gifford was a member arrived in Caraquet on the morning of 27 January 1875 it was directed to the house of André Albert, where some of the rioters were gathered in a loft. The volunteers forced a hole in the ceiling of the house, and at least one shot was fired up into the loft. Then Gifford, who was armed with a .22 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol, shoved his head up through the hole and was shot dead instantly. In the melee which ensued, one of the rioters, Louis Mailloux, was also fatally wounded before the rest of them were arrested. These were the only casualties of the riots.

There was much conflicting testimony at the rioters' trials. André Albert stated that Gifford was up to his waist through the opening in the ceiling firing his weapon wildly, but it was later established that only one shot had been fired from his pistol. In the view of the rioters he and his fellow volunteers were 'Orangemen' bent on drawing Acadian Catholic blood. In the eyes of his Presbyterian co-religionists and most other residents of the Miramichi, however, he was a "young martyr," whose name would be "revered and cherished for all time." Newcastle businesses were closed on the day of his funeral, and more than 700 attended the service at St James Church. Funds collected for a memorial were insufficient to erect one immediately, but after they had earned bank interest for ten years they were used to install the white marble obelisk in St James churchyard which bears the following inscription:

IN MEMORY OF JOHN GIFFORD, AGED 22, WHO WAS SHOT AT CARAQUET, GLOUCESTER CO., N.B., ON THE 27 DAY OF JANUARY 1875 WHILE DOING HIS DUTY AS A SPECIAL CONSTABLE IN AIDING IN THE ARREST OF RIOTERS. THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION AS A MARK OF APPRECIATION OF HIS DEVOTION TO DUTY AND MANLY BRAVERY. "FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH."

Sources

[b] church records [d] Advocate 10 Feb 1875 / Advocate 3 Feb 1875, 10 Nov 1875, 1 Dec 1875; Stanley; World 18 Jul 1885


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