thebravestcanadian

by Sam McBride

I recently discovered a new Peters family “distinction”, which is fascinating but at the same time tragic.

My maternal grandmother Mary Helen Peters Dewdney and her brother Capt. Frederic Thornton Peters, VC and other siblings had a close connection (first cousin, twice removed) with “The last person in New Brunswick to die in a duel of honour“.

George Ludlow Wetmore (1789-1821) was a son of Thomas Wetmore and Sarah Peters, who was the only daughter of our mutual ancestors, James Peters and Margaret Lester, who left New York after the American Revolution as United Empire Loyalists and settled on the east coast of British North America in what later became the Canadian province of New Brunswick.  One of Sarah’s brothers was my great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Horsfield Peters.

Thomas Wetmore, father of George L. Wetmore who died in the duel.

George Ludlow Wetmore was a young lawyer who was often on opposite sides of cases with fellow lawyer George Frederick Street in Fredericton, New Brunswick.  A case of mistaken identity was particularly contentious, with the two men coming close to blows on the way out of the courthouse. Wetmore`s father Thomas, who was attorney-general of the colony of New Brunswick at the time, was among the men who came between his son and Street on the courthouse steps to prevent a physical altercation.

Wetmore went home that evening and seethed with anger about what he perceived as unforgiveable insults from Street.  He asked a friend to go to Street`s house the next morning and deliver an official challenge to a pistol duel of honour, which Street agreed to.

As dueling was illegal in New Brunswick at the time, the two men had to be quiet in making arrangements to meet the next day in a field southwest of Fredericton, along with one friend of each man who served as a “second“ in the duelling tradition.  The wives of Street and Wetmore were kept in the dark about the duel along with everyone else.  Wetmore and wife Harriet Rainsford had three children, including Andrew Rainsford Wetmore, destined to be premier of the province of New Brunswick in the new nation Canada from 1867 to 1870 and then become a Supreme Court judge.  Harriet was also eight-months pregnant as her husband committed to the duel.

In the early morning of October 2, 1821 the duelists went through the ritual of standing with their backs together, walking 15 paces and then turning and shooting at each other without stopping to aim.  Both missed hitting the other man, which was not a surprise in that era of primitive gun technology.

That should have been the end to it, but there had been talk that the duel was not entirely fair because Wetmore had a better-quality pistol than Street.  Wetmore insisted that his honour required a second duel to be performed, this time with the men using each other`s pistols.  In the second shooting, Wetmore`s bullet missed hitting Street, but Street`s bullet hit Wetmore`s wrist and deflected to his head.

The seriously wounded Wetmore was taken to a nearby farmhouse and calls for assistance went out, including to his wife Harriet.  Wetmore was still alive when she arrived.  In her despair at his deathbed Harriet pledged to name their upcoming child George in honour of the noble father, even if the child was not a boy.  She also decided to never talk to, or have anything to do with, anyone in the Street family.  This she did, until her death at age 94 in 1885.

Fearing retribution for Wetmore`s death, Street and his second Richard Davies rode their horses west and crossed the U.S. border into Maine.  In December they decided to return to Fredericton and face the music.  Street went on trial for murder in February 1822, and was acquitted, as the prevailing opinion was that Wetmore`s actions caused his death as much as Street`s.

On Oct. 29, 1821 Harriet had a baby daughter, who she named George Ludlow Harriet Wetmore.  In 1844 the young lady named George married Jasper Murphy and they had 14 children.

Listing of the Wetmore family in the 1896 book “A Peters Lineage”.  The reference to the lady George named after her father who died in the duel is at the bottom.

George Ludlow Harriet Murphy died in 1909 at age 88 — shunning the Streets her whole life.  It was not easy for the two families to avoid each other, as they tended to be in the same social and work circles.

The Street and Wetmore families were not on good terms even before the 1821 duel.  The Streets, who came to New Brunswick directly from England, resented the Wetmore and Peters clans because as Loyalists they generally received larger grants of land from British authorities, as well as preference in government appointments.

A generation earlier, on January 16, 1800, Street`s father, Samuel Denny Street, had fought a duel with John Murray Bliss.  Both shots missed, and Bliss declined the senior Street`s request for a second round of shots.  Bliss`s son George Pidgeon Bliss would marry George Ludlow Wetmore`s sister Sarah in 1819.  Their daughter Sophie Bliss married William Carman, and their children included the prominent New Brunswick poet Bliss Carman, who was a cousin of Helen and “Fritz” Peters, who were born and spent early childhood years in nearby Prince Edward Island before moving west with the family to British Columbia.

George Frederick Street subsequently said he regretted killing George Ludlow Wetmore in the duel, but he turned to dueling once again in 1834 when he challenged Henry George Clopper.  Clopper declined the challenge, in line with public sentiment which had become overwhelmingly against dueling, largely because of the death of Wetmore a decade earlier.  Street went on to serve as a judge in New Brunswick.  His fellow judges in New Brunswick included Wetmore’s uncles Charles Jeffery Peters and Thomas Horsfield Peters, and his cousin James Horsfield Peters (grandfather of Fritz Peters and Helen Peters) who was a longtime judge close by in Prince Edward Island.

The Wetmore-Street feud lasted until June 27, 1994 at the same location where the duel occurred 173 years before.  Descendants of the Wetmore and Street families were invited to the unveiling of a historical display based on the famous duel, including the original pistols.  During the proceedings, members of the two families shook hands to mark an end to the feud.

Brandon Manitoba Sun, June 28, 1994

Today the Wetmore-Street Pub and Eatery is a popular restaurant in the small community of New Maryland, New Brunswick, near the site of the fatal duel.

https://www.vonm.ca/living/the-street-wetmore-duel

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wetmore_george_ludlow_6E.html

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