Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/303

Vetch artillery, under the incompetent Brigadier-general John Hill [q. v.], and of a fleet under Rear-admiral Sir Hovenden Walker [q. v.] It arrived at Boston on 24 June 1711, and on 6 July Vetch sailed for Boston, leaving Sir Charles Hobby in command at Annapolis, and took over the command of the Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island levies which were to proceed with the regular troops under Hill to the St. Lawrence, while Nicholson commanded the remainder of the provincial troops for the attack of Montreal by way of Lake Champlain, as arranged for the attack proposed in the previous year.

The expedition sailed on 30 July, Vetch being on board the Despatch, arrived at Gaspé Harbour on 18 Aug., and left again on the 21st in a thick fog. On the night of the 22nd the flagship, the Edgar, was leading when she found herself among the breakers of the Egg Islands. She narrowly escaped, but eight transports were wrecked, and over nine hundred lives were lost. Vetch, well astern in the Despatch, was extremely uneasy at the course steered by the flag, and expressed his surprise to Captain Perkins and Colonel Dudley, but it was not until the 25th that he learned the full extent of the disaster. On that day a council of war was held on board the flagship to determine whether the expedition should be abandoned. Vetch insisted, and the other colonels agreed with him, that there was still an ample force for the purpose of the expedition, and urged its prosecution; it was, nevertheless, decided to abandon the expedition. As soon as Vetch returned to his ship he sent a strongly worded remonstrance to the admiral, pointing out the serious consequences to the interests of the crown and of the British North American colonies.

The failure of his grand scheme greatly mortified Vetch, but he had done his part and had the confidence of all, even the admiral testifying to his skill and energy. He returned to Annapolis with reliefs detached from each of the seven regiments which had returned to England. On 20 Oct. 1711 he visited Boston, leaving Thomas Caulfield as his deputy at Annapolis. He remained until the spring of the following year, settling matters in connection with the recent expedition and with his Acadian government. During his stay his nephew, Major Livingstone, raised for him a valuable body of Iroquois Indians, which he sent to Annapolis in March to act against the Indians in French employment. On his return to Annapolis, Vetch expressed his satisfaction with them and confidence in his ability to keep the French and their Indians quiet with the garrison at his disposal.

Vetch's chief difficulty was want of money. Late in 1712 he writes that ‘the wants of the garrison keep me nightly in suspense,’ and Captain Armstrong was sent express to England to represent the critical state of affairs, since mutiny and starvation were imminent. With the greatest difficulty, after pledging all his own and the agents' credit, he obtained supplies for the winter. His recommendations of policy met with no better reception from the home government than his applications for money, and on 20 Oct. 1712 Nicholson was appointed to supersede him. No intimation of his supersession reached Annapolis until the summer of 1713. In the autumn Vetch left for Boston to meet the new governor, and soon ascertained that it was to Nicholson his troubles were due. Nicholson came armed with authority to inquire into the conduct of all the colonial governors. Vetch, however, ignored his summons to justify his conduct, and sailed for England in April 1714.

Vetch laid his case before the home government, and so completely did he gain their confidence that he was consulted in various matters connected with the American colonies, and on 20 Jan. 1715 Nicholson was recalled, and Vetch again commissioned as governor of Nova Scotia. The secret of Vetch's ill-treatment and supersession, as also of his reinstatement, was no doubt political. Vetch was an ardent whig, Nicholson was a tory.

Vetch held his second term of government for over two years, and was succeeded on 17 Aug. 1717 by Colonel Richard Philipps. Vetch was in England in 1719 pressing his numerous claims for pay, &c., on the government. He was selected to accompany Colonel Bladon to France as commissioner in connection with matters left unsettled by the treaty of Utrecht, particularly the boundary between the French and British colonies in America. Later he was still seeking relief, the Earl of Sunderland's promise to find him ‘some government abroad’ remaining unfulfilled. At length Vetch begged that he might have even a captain's half-pay, ‘being reduced to the last extremity of necessity.’ He died on 30 April 1732, a prisoner for debt, in the king's bench. He was buried at St. George's Church, Southwark.

Vetch married, at Albany, on 20 Dec. 1700, Margaret (died about 1763), daughter of Robert Livingstone, secretary for Indian affairs, and of his wife, Alida Schuyler, who was a granddaughter of John Livingstone, one of the commissioners sent to Breda by the church of Scotland to treat with Charles II in regard to his restoration.