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by Chris Laverton Earlier this year, in the March issue of Fife and Drum, we offered evidence that the garrison well, discovered in 1956, is almost certainly the Government House well built for Lieutenant-General Peter Hunter in 1802. We are pleased to present here our latest research. As an addendum to the earlier article on the subject of the garrison well, it may be of interest for readers to know that recent examination of the pay lists of artificers employed by the Royal Engineer Department reveals further detail of its construction, not the least of which is the identity of the man who actually sunk it. The several military artificers who had been engaged on the various public works at the garrison, that spring of 1802, are all named on the lists, together with their regimental affiliations. It appears that the well had been excavated and walled up by four masons belonging to the 6th Regiment, while the well house was erected by carpenters of the Queen’s Rangers, all of whom were assisted by Fatigue-men of the Queen’s Rangers and 2nd Royal Canadian Volunteers. At the end of July, the men received their first payment for the previous three-month period, but one in particular was singled out for a significant bonus. Of the four 6th Regt. Masons employed, David Clarkson had evidently excavated the General’s well single-handedly, over a period of 52 days. By the end of July, the carpenters had erected a well house over it, and the Government House well was complete. So pleased was General Hunter with it, and the ‘Great Labor and comparative short time’ in which Clarkson completed the well, that he–quite uncharacteristically–authorized the man to be paid at the rate of 3/ per day, instead of the usual 1/3 paid to military artificers.
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