The Provincialist (1847? - 1859)
Extract from Robert Armstrong's "History of Journalism in St. Andrews," 1910:
THE PROVINCIALIST
The Provincialist, published by Patrick Clinch, must have followed close upon the heels of the Gazette, though the years of its earthly pilgrimage I have been unable to obtain. Mr. Clinch was a son of Capt. Clinch, the original grantee of 7,700 acres in the town and parish of St. George. He was a man of importance—like most St. Andrews editors—and sat for a period in the Legislature of the Province. One old resident of the town told me that the Provincialist was published in a building opposite the Grimmer store. She said she went to a school upstairs in the same building, taught by a r. Peteson. When our present Sheriff was master of the Madras school in St. George in 1865 the old editor was living there with his son. One day the old man wandered int the woods and was lost for some time. Everybody quit work and went out to seek for the lost. After a long search he was found, deep in the forest. Though very weak he was not beyond cracking a joke with his finder. When the latter called out to his comrades that he had found him, the old man replied, in a thin, weak voice, “Yes, and it isn’t much of a gain you’ve got.” He died not long afterwards.
As the last item in the attached documents indicate, the Provinicalist discontinued in 1859 due to a perennial complaint of local newspaper publishers, the delinquency of subscribers in settling their accounts.