Incorporated in 1791, the St. George's Bay Company became the Sierra Leone Company and was approached by Thomas Peters, a British loyalist and Black soldier who had been resettled in Nova Scotia. Unhappy with the climate there, he asked if he and fellow persons who had been sent to Nova Scotia could be resettled in Sierra Leone. As a result, 1,196 people left from Nova Scotia and arrived in Sierra Leone in 1792. Sixty-five of the passengers died en route, but arrived to found Freetown (initially Free Town) on 16 March 1792. By 1799, the settlers were discontented with the rule of the Sierra Leone Company and broke into open rebellion, appointing their own judges and refusing to pay rent to the company. That year the Sierra Leone Company drafted a charter, to reduce the authority of the police, known as Hundredors and Tythingmen, limiting them to the role of constables. While the police were to be elected by the colonists, the Company retained the right to veto candidates. The charter also established a court system, governor and council, and a local militia.
