Saturday I bought yet another historical atlas: Muir’s (1927/52). I learn to my surprise that southern British Columbia was once called New Caledonia, and northern Manitoba (before 1912) was New South Wales. Why isn’t there a New North Wales or, for that matter, a New just plain Wales? (William Penn proposed to name his colony New Wales; the King disapproved, and Sylvania was Penn’s second choice.)
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There was a New North Wales – west of Hudson Bay north of New South Wales. The following is from a rept of the privy Council (UK) 23rd, July, 1752: “In 1631 Captain Luke Fox by command of King Charles the First made a voyage to Hudson’s Bay, and amongst other places entered Port Nelson, and finding there a Cross which had been erected by Sir Thomas Button with the Inscription almost defaced and worn out, he erected it again with a new Inscription declaring the Right and Possession of His then Majesty King Charles the First, and named the adjacent Country New North Wales”.