VETCH, Samuel, colonial governor, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 9 December, 1668 ; died in London, England, 30 April, 1732. He was the son of William Vetch, a minister in Edinburgh, was educated there and at the College of Utrecht, Holland, and accompanied William, Prince of Orange, to England, 5 November, 1688. He afterward served with credit in Flanders in the war against France, returned to England at the peace of Ryswick in 1697, and in 1698 was appointed one of the seven councillors of the "colony of Caledonia" at Darien and proceeded thither. (See PATERSON, WILLIAM.) He accompanied Paterson as far as New York when the latter was on his way to England to report to the directors of the Darien scheme, and afterward went to Albany, engaged in trade with the Indians, and on 20 December, 1700, married Margaret, daughter of Robert Livingston. In 1705 he was sent as a commissioner from Governor Joseph Dudley, of Massachusetts, to Quebec with proposals for a treaty between Canada and New England; but, having failed, he went to England in 1708, and with the full authorization of the colony of New York proposed to Queen Anne the seizure of Canada. The queen regarded the proposal with favor and forwarded by Colonel Vetch her instructions to the colonial governors to aid in rendering the project effective. On landing at Boston he laid his instructions before the governor and council of Massachusetts, and also forwarded similar documents to the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In consequence of the non-arrival of the fleet that was promised by the queen, the expedition against Canada was abandoned. Returning to Boston, he called a meeting of prominent citizens, at which it was decided to fit out an expedition for the capture of Port Royal (now Annapolis), Nova Scotia, and at the same time a requisition was made for men-of-war to assist in the enterprise. The expedition was commanded by Sir Francis Nicholson, Colonel Vetch being adjutant-general, and after the capitulation of Port Royal, 2 October, 1710, the latter remained as governor of the conquered colony. Governor Vetch next sent a delegation to the French governor-general at Quebec, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, to announce that Acadia had fallen into the hands of the British and to offer an exchange of prisoners that had been captured at Annapolis for British subjects that were then in Montreal and Quebec. Nothing came of this ; but Vetch and his small garrison, who had held precarious possession of the conquered province, were finally relieved from the fear of reprisals on the part of the French and Iroquois by the treaty of Utrecht, 11 April, 1713. Shortly afterward he was removed from the governorship of Nova Scotia in consequence of his great zeal for George I., soon after whose accession he was restored to his post; but he was soon removed again. The cause of his second removal is unknown, though it is surmised that his harsh treatment of the plotting priests and the people of the province was the chief reason. After his departure from Annapolis he went to Boston, annoyed the war and state departments with his claims for back-pay, and petitioned the king to be allowed £3,000 a year till he had been provided with a post in America as had been promised. Receiving neither the post nor the money, he returned finally to England, where he was residing in 1719. He was a man of great natural ability and formed for command, but prejudiced in politics and religion. A manuscript journal covering the Port Royal period is in the possession of Mrs. James Speyers, of New York, as is also. the portrait by Sir Peter Lely, which has been engraved for the first time for this work. See "An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia," by Thomas C. Haliburton (Halifax, 1829); "Journal of the Voyage of the Sloop Mary" (1701 ; new ed., with introduction and notes by Edmund B. O'Callaghan, New York, 1866); " History and General Description of New France," by Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix, translated with notes by John G. Shea (New York, 1866-'72); and "An Acadian Governor," by James Grant Wilson, in "International Review" (November, 1881).