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THE HARRIS FAMILY
of Sandy Cove, Digby Township, Digby County, Nova Scotia
Announcement: Descendants of Francis Harris, United Empire Loyalist of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia: A Work in Progress to the 7th Generation (2015), by Ross W. McCurdy, was published in January. The book, which is 270 pages and has a complete index of names, extends many of the lines traced below down to living persons. For further details contact rwmccurdy AT comcast.net or ph. 508-258-0029.
This page has the modest purpose of attempting to augment the published record only of such descendants of Joseph4 Harris (living 1746), of Poughkeepsie, New York, as derive from the Loyalist lines which left New York for Nova Scotia in 1783. Our original starting point for the documentation of this family was the long two-part article on the Harrises of Block Island and Dutchess County by the late Dr. Roderick Bissell Jones (1898-1974), of Winstead, Connecticut, a physicist by profession, which appeared in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (hereafter NYGBR) for 1953.[1] This article has however not stood up well to subsequent scrutiny. First — although the correction now proves to be irrelevant to the present line — the treatment of the supposed two wives of the founder, William1 Harris, was discovered to be in error.[2] Later, Gale Ion Harris, the noted authority on many American Harris families, determined that a large number of persons treated in Jones’s article, including the present Joseph, actually belonged to an entirely different family than that of William1 Harris, despite Jones’s belief in the “family tradition” that Joseph had “lived for some years with his [alleged] sister, Miriam (Harris) Coult, in Lyme, Conn., after her marriage in 1724.”[3] This reassignment eliminated the Innes, Willey, and Moore ancestries which had been credited to Joseph Harris for half a century. In compensation, however, it introduced the Mainwaring ancestry, which brings with it a royal line.
It is, nevertheless, singularly fortunate that Jones, however mistakenly, took such an interest in the Harrises of Poughkeepsie and their Nova Scotian descendants, for pursuing his researches half a century ago, he preserved many details which might otherwise now be unrecoverable. Although Jones dealt exhaustively with the more recent male line of these Harrises, neither he nor his successors have made much effort to identify their wives.[4] His suggestion that Catharine Hegeman, wife of Joseph3 Harris, was a daughter of Frans and Antjen (Ruwaert) Hegeman, originally of Flatbush, L.I., proved easy enough to verify.[5] He ventures to suggest nothing concerning the parentage of Catharine Lent, wife of Francis4 Harris; but it must always have seemed obvious to genealogists that she belonged to the progeny of Abraham van Lent, of Newtown, L.I., about which much has been written. It turns out that we do not have to look further than the baptismal record of her eldest child to discover the names of her parents, Isaac Lent and Sara Luyster, who served as sponsors on that occasion. We shall present the evidence for this connection in greater detail in a forthcoming page on this site.
The marriages, in succession, of Joseph Harris to Catharina Hegeman and of their son Francis Harris (firstly) to Catharina Lent, brought many Dutch lines into the ancestry of the Harrises of Sandy Cove, and this doubtless accounts for the fact that many of the latter report their ethnicity as “German” in nineteenth-century census records. Paternally, however, the line was certainly of British origin.
Our accounts of Francis Harris and his brother Peter contain material from Canadian sources which, we believe, is mostly new. The versions or editions of church and cemetery records used are listed at the end of the text, preceding the endnotes; thanks is owed to the many persons, some of them anonymous, who have toiled to transcribe these records. Although something has been achieved here in documenting this Nova Scotian line of Harrises, we have scarcely managed to trace any branches of the family beyond the third Canadian generation. Surely there must be many descendants of this family still living in the vicinity of Sandy Cove and Shelburne, but the extreme commonness of the surname — it was the single commonest surname in the neighboring county of Annapolis in 1870[6] — is a great impediment to research, as is the loss of the 1851 census for most of Nova Scotia.
The single most thorough account of a branch of this Harris family is now to be found outside of these pages. Francis Harris, just mentioned, was father of Francis Harris, Jr. (1788-1847), of Bayham Township, Elgin County, Upper Canada, who married Rachel McDormand. Their descendants, down to great-great-great-grandchildren, are traced in some 38 pages of Ross W. McCurdy’s Descendants of James & Anna (Rice) McDormand, of Brier Island, Nova Scotia (South Yarmouth, Massachusetts: the author, 2013), pp. 8ff. For this reason, it is unlikely the present treatment of this branch of the family will be further revised or expanded.
These researches were greatly aided in their early stages by the late Cecelia (Coon) Botting (1905-1994), who read and commented upon an earlier draft. We are unclear as to precisely when she and her husband, the late Roland B. Botting, first identified the parentage of Catharine Harris, wife of John Comfort. It was some time between the publication in 1957 of the first edition of their Descendants of John Kennedy, where the Comfort and Harris families are confused, and the publication in 1971 of Comfort Families of America, where, probably by an oversight, her parents were never named, but the correct statement on p. 331 that they “were married in 1763” shows that the authors had the right couple in mind. This allusion was later clarified by Cecelia Botting in a personal communication to the present compiler, in which she kindly supplied the reference to the 1953 article by Jones. Thanks are also due to:
- Cheryl Andrews for providing material on her ancestral lines;
- Ross W. McCurdy, of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, for contributing important source material;
- Wayne Morgan, of Nova Scotia, for help with the Ontario branch of the family;
- Rob McDormand, of Richmond, B.C., for help with the Ontario branch of the family;
- George Levoy, for information on the family of his grandmother, Clara Saunders;
- Ronald Gedney, a triple descendants of this family, for help with the families of Albert Edward Gidney and Emma Mabel Eldridge, and of Franlin Morrison Saunders and Mary Christina Saunders;
- Marion Angrignon (not a Harris descendant), of Sandy Cove, for generously sharing her extensive unpublished notes on Sandy Cove families.
- Jordan Peeples, a Harris and Saunders descendant.
- Dwayne Sabine.
Please note that while the generation numbers in the headings refer to family’s presence in Canada, the superscript numerals after persons’ names follow the usual convention of reckoning generations in descent from the colonial immigrant (i.e. Walter1 Harris).
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The parents of the Nova Scotia Immigrants
1. Joseph4 Harris, of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co., New York, son of Peter3 (Gabriel2, Walter1) Harris, of New London, by the latter’s wife Elizabeth Manwaring, daughter of Oliver Manwaring (or Mainwaring), also of New London, was baptized 12 June 1709 in the First Church of New London, Connecticut, and was still alive in 1746.[7]
According to Gale Ion Harris, “He left New London in 1729 and resided in several towns in the westerly part of Connecticut — Waterbury, Guilford, Ridgefield, Reading — before moving … across the line into Dutchess Co., N.Y.,” and is last attested in Connecticut records on 19 October 1736, when, being described as “of Reading in ye County of Fairfield,” he sold for £90 his 5-acre “homested … together with ye house thereon standing” in Ridgefield.[8]
Joseph Harris, “son of Mr. Peter Harris, deceased, formerly of New London, now of Waterbury,” sold his father’s share of land in Waterbury when he came of age in 1730; in a deed dated 1 February 1731, he is called “resident now of Guilford, New Haven County,” Connecticut.[9] G.I. Harris gives further details of Connecticut land transactions for this man. Joseph Harris is first of record in New York in 1737, when he is listed as a tax-payer in the Middle Ward of Nine Partners Precinct, Dutchess Co.[10]
He married before 1739, and probably before 1736, Catharina Hegeman, born say 1711, probably at Flatbush, Kings Co., New York, living 1746, daughter of Frans Hegeman, of Poughkeepsie, by the latter’s wife Antjen Rouard or Ruwaert. This marriage accounts for the subsequent persistence of the name Francis (the English form of Frans) in this branch of the Harris family.
In 1738 Joseph Harris was appointed Constable and Collector for Crum Elbow Precinct.[11] According to Jones he paid taxes in the Middle Ward of Dutchess County in 1737-38, in Crum Elbow Precinct in 1738-41, and in Poughkeepsie in 1741-45. He baptized four children in the Poughkeepsie Dutch Church in 1739-45. The account-book of his wife’s mother’s half-brother, Francis Filkin, who was the landlord of their farm at Crum Elbow, records sales to him in 1744 of a total of 14 dozen pigeons, suggesting that he may have been planning to breed them.[12] The same record mentions under the date 1 April 1746 that Joseph Harris had absconded, owing a year’s rent and abandonning his wife and children.[13] He was apparently never heard from again.
According to G.I. Harris’s account, Joseph Hegeman probably had five children,[14] but we confine our attention here to the two sons through whom Canadian branches of the family derive:[15]
First Canadian Generation
2. (Capt.) Peter5 Harris, J.P., of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co., New York, son of Joseph Harris and Catharina Hegeman, was baptized 26 May 1739 in the Poughkeepsie Dutch Church with sponsors Pieter Harris and Maria Heegeman, and died (probably intestate) 19 June 1779 at New York City.[16] He married (probably as her first husband) by New York licence dated 27 May 1763,[17] Sarah Dubois, living 1786, daughter (and probably heiress) of Gideon Dubois, of Poughkeepsie, by the latter’s wife Sara, daughter of Col. Barent Van Kleeck and Antoinette Parmentier.[18] Jones further notes, “She is said to have married (2nd) in 1786, Col. Nathaniel Vernon, in Nova Scotia but she is referred to as ‘Mrs. Harris’ in the vestry minutes of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, in 1797.” We cannot vouch for the content of these vestry minutes, but if she was indeed the “Sarah Harwish” (sic) who married Nathaniel Vernon, then the marriage occurred (in Christ Church, Shelburne) on 28 July 1792, not on the date stated by Jones.[19] In any case, it seems likelier that this record relates to the present woman’s daughter, Sarah Harris, and accordingly we reserve further discussion of it for our account of the latter.
For our knowledge of Peter Harris we are much indebted to the account given by R.B. Jones, despite its occasional inaccuracies. In May 1759, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Dutchess County Militia and a year later was promoted to Captain, a post he retained through 1762 or later. At that time he is described as five feet, eight inches tall, brown complexion, with black hair and eyes.[20] Peter Harris was of Rumbout Precinct in 1759-61, when he paid taxes there.[21] He baptized a child at New Hackensack in 1764, and two more at Poughkeepsie in 1766-68. He would not live many more years, and a warrant, dated 19 June 1779, the day of his death, refers to “Capt. Peter Harris’s Company, commanded by Lieut. Coll. Abrm. Van Buskirk,” passing on control of his troops.[22] According to Jones, “He was one of the founders of Christ Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie in 1766, and his name is entered on the subscription list for £10, an unusually large amount; also, the early organizational meetings were held at his house. He contributed the linen for the Rev. Mr. Beardsley’s surplice and was one of those responsible for the latter’s salary. When the Glebe land for the church was purchased, he was one of two people that furnished a £300 bond toward its cost and he argeed to pay an annuity of £4 annually to Mrs. Ostrum, widow of the former owner. In 1797, Mrs. Harris, Capt. Peter’s widow, was asked by the vestry of Christ Church to furnish receipts of the amount paid.”[23]
“Peter Harris fought in the French and Indian War under Gen. Jeffrey Amherst. A copy of the order, issued to him at the stime, is still extant. Authorizing him to raise a company of men to reduce Montreal, it is dated April 1760, and was signed by James Delancey. Capt. Peter was one of the leaders in the Christ Church group that took the King’s side during the Revolution and served in the Fourth Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers in the Prince of Wales’ Regiment. He was twice taken prisoner, once after the evacuation of Boston, and escaped to the British man-of-war Asia on both occasions. His widow had quarters on Long Island and was provided for by the British until she sailed for Shelburne, Nova Scotia, in 1783 with her children, Catherine and Peter.”[24]
Sarah DuBois would appear to have been a woman of considerable property. On 23 September 1775, Myndert Van Kleeck, merchant, of Poughkeepsie, acting “in trust for Sarah wife of Peter Harris,” lent £500 to Peter Van De Water, farmer, of Rombout Precinct, who put up 158 acres of land as security.[25] The widow Sarah (DuBois) Harris made petition in 1786 for reparation of her husband’s war losses, stating that he had left money in the hands of “Isaac Haegaman, farmer, of Rombout,”[26] and a copy of the “Estimate of the Loss of Property and Effects, Sustained by Sarah Harris, widow of the late Capt. Peter Harris,” mentioning “bonds in the hands of Isaac Hagerman of Rumbout,” with a list of debtors, is to be found in the Harris file at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.[27] This Isaac Hegeman was presumably Peter Harris’s maternal uncle of this name, who was still alive at the time.[28]
Known issue:
- Sarah Harris, baptized July 1764 in the New Hackensack Dutch Church, Dutchess Co., with sponsors Gideon Du Bois and Neeltje Luyster. As noted above, a Sarah “Harwish” married 28 July 1792 in Christ Church, Shelburne, Nathaniel Vernon. He is not accorded any title in the record, but was perhaps the Lieut. Nathaniel Vernon, Jr., who came with his father, Capt. Nathaniel Vernon, Sr., to Jordan River, Shelburne Co., in 1783.[29] No record of any issue of this marriage has been found. These two Nathaniels, father and the son, whose dates of birth we are unable to estimate with any confidence, are not easily distinguished in the materials available to us. The “Capt. Nathaniel Vernon” who married in the same church on 7 July 1803, Margaret Percy, was certainly the same as “Nathaniel Vernon, half pay capt. 17th Regt. Dragoons,” who was baptized as an adult, together with his son Augustus by this wife, on 17 May 1807.[30]
- Peter Harris, of Shelburne, baptized 19 Oct 1766 in Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, no sponsors being named in the record; living 1829. An unsourced record extracted in the IGI states that he died 4 May 1835 at Sandy Cove. Jones mentions that he was brought to Shelburne as a child. The names of his sons clearly distinguish him from his cousin, Peter Harris, of Digby. He married 11 November 1802 in the parish church of SS George and Patrick (more commonly known as Christ Church), Shelburne,[31] Margaret Matthews, living 1827. Although the mother of his first child is named in the baptismal register as Sarah Jane, this is surely incorrect as the mother of the third and fourth children is called Margaret as expected. In the baptismal record of his son Peter and daughter Sarah (1814) he is called of “McNutt’s Island in Shelburne Harbour, farmer.” In that of his twin sons Joseph and William (1818) he is simply called of Shelburne, farmer. He is probably the Peter Harris, with a family of 4 males and 2 females, enumerated in the 1827 census of Shelburne Tp., Shelburne Co. On 14 June 1827, for some reason which is not apparent, he made, possibly in his own hand, a document making “Margreat Harris of Shelburn” his “lawful attorny.”[32]
Known issue (all baptisms in Christ Church, Shelburne):[33]- Peter DuBois Harris, baptized 15 October 1814 (but as a son of Peter and Sarah Jane Harris). He has not been found in the 1861, 1871, or 1881 census.
- Sarah Jane Harris, baptized together with her brother Peter; of her nothing further is known.
- Joseph Bell Harris (twin), born 29 April 1818, baptized 12 May following, evidently named for his uncle-by-marriage, Joseph Bell. He has not been found in the 1871 or 1881 census.
- William Cox Harris (twin), born 29 April 1818, baptized 12 May following. He has not been found in the 1871 or 1881 census.
- DuBois Gideon Harris, baptized 26 December 1768 in Christ Church, Poughkeepsie, with sponsors William Emott, Jeremiah Du Bois [the mother’s uncle], and Rachel Du Bois [the latter’s wife]. He died (probably unmarried) of consumption “at the age of “21” (sic) years,” and was buried 3 March 1791 in Christ Church cemetery, Shelburne. Although obviously named for his maternal grandfather, Gideon Dubois, he is called “DuBois Gideon” in the records of his baptism and burial.
- 4Catharine Harris, born 1768-70.
3. Francis5 Harris, of Rumbout Precinct, Dutchess Co., New York, and of Sandy Cove, Digby Tp., Annapolis (since 1837 Digby) Co., Nova Scotia, “yeoman,” son of Joseph Harris and Catharina Hegeman, was baptized 9 May 1740 in the Poughkeepsie Dutch Church with sponsors Frans Hegeman and Antjen Ruwaard [his mother’s parents], and died in Nova Scotia in 1816, between 1 April (when he made his will) and 27 December (when a warrant of appraisement for his estate was issued).[34] He married (1) 10 January 1763 in the Rumbout Presbyterian Church, Dutchess Co., N.Y.,[35] Catharina Lent, born say 1743 in New York State, living 1767 but died by 1774, daughter of Isaac Lent, of Rumbout Precinct, by the latter’s wife Sara Luyster, her parentage being indicated by the appearance of “Isaac Lent and his wife Sarah Luister” as baptismal sponsors to her son Peter in 1765. Francis Harris paid taxes in Rumbout Precinct in 1763 and 1765-73.[36] He was living at Hopewell (now called Hopewell Junction) in 1765-77, when he had children baptized there. A deed of June 1771 which calls him “Francis Harris, yeoman, of Rombout,” recites the fact that in March 1768 his father-in-law Isaac Lent had co-signed for him a mortgage worth £600.[37] He, as “widower of Cathrina Lent,” married (2) 17 July 1774 in the Hopewell Dutch Church, Engeltje (“Evangeline”) Vandewater, died in late October or in November of 1810, of apoplexy, and buried at an unstated date in November in Trinity parish churchyard, Digby,[38] of Hopewell at the time of her marriage but of unstated parentage; she was probably a daughter of Peter Vandewater (or Van De Water), of Hopewell and Fishkill, and the latter’s first wife Aagje/Egtje De Lange, who were of the right age to be her parents, and she was almost certainly not this Peter’s sister, as claimed in a 1967 article by Wilson V. Ledley.[39]
“Pieter van de Water and his wife” served as baptismal sponsors to Engletje’s daughter Hannah in 1777; and while is a pity the record does not state the name of Pieter’s wife, there is no reason to believe there was more than one man of this name living in the area at the time. A further point supporting this hypothesis as to her parentage is that a year after their marriage, on 23 September 1775, Peter Van De Water, farmer, of Rombout Precinct, using 158 acres of property as collateral, obtained a loan of £500 from Myndert Van Kleeck, merchant, of Poughkeepsie, who was acting “in trust for Sarah wife of Peter Harris,” Francis’s sister-in-law.[40]
Francis Harris was living at New Hackensack, Wappinger Tp., Dutchess Co., in 1777, when his daughter Hannah was baptized there. R.B. Jones is correct in suggesting that Francis Harris was “probably the Loyalist of that name whose estate was confiscated in Dutchess County and who went to Digby, Nova Scotia, after the peace,”[41] the refugees being transported there by boat by the British in June of 1783.[42] That he was indeed such is verified by the agreement of Canadian records with New York sources respecting his four eldest children. His name appears in the muster roll of Loyalists taken at Digby on 29 May 1784, showing him as a member of Ritchie’s Company, and stating that he had settled at Digby with his wife and their three children, all under the age of ten years.[43] Francis Harris was granted 300 acres in Digby Tp. as a Loyalist in 1784, but he subsequently escheated his land to the Crown after failing to fulfil his settlement duties, and later events make it clear that he took up residence elsewhere.[44] This forfeiture presumably occurred because in the meantime, on 4 February 1787, he had received a grant for 100 more acres at Sandy Cove in Digby Township.[45] It will be noted below that his will disposes of lots 16, 22, and 23, “situated on the north side of St. Mary’s Bay.”
On 14 January 1788 Francis Harris was one of the settlers of Sandy Cove place who wrote to the Governor complaining that their grants had not been surveyed or assigned, which resulted in an official grant dated 5 June of that year; a list attached to the petition now lists him with a wife and four children, proving that his youngest was born in Nova Scotia.[46] There are several scattered references to Francis Harris there in a nineteenth-century local history, which seem to state that he lived “on Valley Shore, east of the Mills,” and that his house was used as a school.[47] A modern historian describes his property as “a lot which bordered on the Morehouse land above the brook.”[48] Francis Harris’s name appears from 1788 to 1814 in the account-book of the general store kept by Stephen Fountain at Sandy Cove.[49] Following the building of old Trinity Anglican Church, Digby in 1787, he was one of the “proprietors” of the parish taxed to pay the sexton’s salary in 1789.[50] He was also one of the five men of Sandy Cove who, in the summer of 1790, organized the first school in the town.[51] Francis Harris was one of the six original associates in the Hatfield grant of 1801.[52] In 1808 Francis Harris and his son Stephen, with other citizens of Sandy Cove, were granted pasture-land at the head of St. Mary’s Bay.[53]
In his will, dated 1 April 1816 and proved 27 December following, Francis Harris names his sons Peter, Stephen, and Francis, his daughters Hannah, Sarah, and Catharine, and his granddaughter “Angalshe” (i.e. Engeltje), daughter of his son Peter:
In the name of God, Amen. I, Francis Harris, of the Township of Digby in the County of Annapolis & Province of Nova Scotia, yeoman, being in good health of body and of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given to God, calling into mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last will and testament….
Principally … I give and recommend my soul into the hands of Almighty God that gaive it, and my body I recommend to the earth, to be buried in Christian burial, nothing doubting but at the general resurrection I shall receive the same by the mighty power of God. And as touching such wourldly things and estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, demise [sic! — corrected to “devise” in registered copy], and dispose of the same in manner following, viz.:
Firstly…, that after my decease and after my just debts are paid and funeral expenses, I … will to my eldes[t] son Peter Harrise {or his heirs} … the sum of fifteen pound currency … to be paid to him … by my son Stephen Harris or my executors in twelve months after my decease in stock or money. Also I give and bequeath to my second son Stephen Harris the sole possession of my lot of land number twenty three also the lot of land number twenty two adjoining to the former lot of land both situated on the north side of St. Marys Bay for him … and his heirs {and assigns} to have and to hold forever.
Also to my third son Francis Harris I give and bequeath … all my lot of Land number sixteen for him …, his heirs {and assigns}, to have and to hold for ever…. Also six large silver spoons and all the farming intinshal [i.e. utensils] and a pare of hand irons, shovel and tongues [tongs], and trammel, and six tin milk pans, one bed and beading [bedding], and all my carpenter’s tools, and one yoke of oxen, one cow, two heffers [heifers], three sheep, and all the household furniture excepting what shall be given to my daughters … hereafter named. Also my son Francis [shall] pay all my funeral expen[s]es.
Also I give unto my daughter Hannah one bead [bed] and beading [bedding] curtains, and six silver teaspoons….
Also I give to my daughter Sarah … one silver snuffbox, one bakepan one chest; also ten pound[s] to be paid her by my son Francis, as occas[i]onaly required or as my Executors shall think propper….
Also I give unto to my granddaughter Angalshe Harris, daughter of the said Peter Harris, a small spinning-wheel and three sheep.
Item I give to my daughter Catharine the sum of ten pound[s], to be paid by my son Francis.
Also my will is that if any of my sons or sons-in-law bring any accounspts [sic] against my estate after my decease they shall be taken out of what I have given them or their wives in my will.
I constitute, make, and ordain my trusty friend Jacob Connell junior and my beloved son Stephen Harris my executors of this my last will and testament, and I do hereby utterly dissallow, revoke and disannul [!] {all} and every other … by ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and Testament.
In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal this first day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixteen … in the presences of … John Morehouse Sn, Isaac Morehouse, Joseph Morehouse.[54]
A letter written by his daughter Hannah (Harris) Saunders to her sister Catharine (Harris) Comfort in December 1817 (formerly in the possession of the latter’s descendant Cecelia Botting), refers to Francis Harris’ death in the previous year and to his second wife Evangeline’s death six years earlier.[55]
By his first wife, Catharina Lent, Francis Harris had the following children:
By his second wife, Engeltje Vandewater, Francis Harris had the following children:
- Stephen Harris, born 13 September 1774, baptized 26 March 1775 in the Hopewell Dutch Church (no sponsors being named in the record), apparently living 1817, when he is said to have carried a letter from his sister Hannah to his sister Catharine in Lincoln Co., U.C. His name appears in the accounts of Stephen Fountain’s general store at Sandy Cove between 1806 and 1811,[56] and he shared with his father and others in an 1816 grant of pasture land at the head of St. Mary’s Bay.[57] However, no one of this name appears in the 1838 census of Digby Tp.
- 7Hannah Harris, baptized 27 August 1777 in the New Hackensack Dutch Church with sponsors “Pieter van de Water and his wife.”
- 8Francis Harris, Jr., born in Nova Scotia, baptized 20 September 1791 at Sandy Cove by the minister of Trinity Anglican Church, Digby.
- Sarah Harris, probably born in Nova Scotia, living 1816, when she is named in her father’s will, but of whom nothing further is known. The bequest to her in her father’s will of an allowance with no stipulations suggests that she was not only unmarried, but was not expected to marry.
Second Canadian Generation
4. Catharine6 Harris, daughter of (Capt.) Peter Harris, J.P., of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co., New York, by the latter’s wife Sarah Dubois, was born some time in 1768-70, died 26 May 1852, aged 72 years (per her tombstone) or 73 years (per the burial register), and was buried in Christ Church cemetery, Shelburne, Nova Scotia, although there was no surviving tombstone for her there in 2002. She married 7 May 1802 in Christ Church, Shelburne, Joseph Bell, of Shelburne, living 1812.[58] Given the known composition of her family, she was surely the Catharine Bell, Methodist, with a household consisting of 1 male and 4 females, who is found in the 1827 census of Shelburne Tp., the adjacent entry being for her son-in-law James Hemeon.[59] Known issue, all baptisms in Christ Church:[60]
- An unnamed child of uncertain gender, baptized 19 January 1803.
- 9Clarissa Bell (twin to Almira below?), baptized 1 April 1804.
- Almira Bell (twin to Clarissa above?), baptized 1 April 1804, living unmarried with her brother William in 1881.
- Lucretia Bell, baptized 7 April 1806. She married 15 January 1839 in Christ Church, Shelburne, her brother-in-law, Israel Lovitt Wilson, of Barrington Tp., Chelburne Co., said to have been born 31 January 1802, brother of the wife of Lucretia’s brother William, and son of Obediah Wilson, of Barrington, by the latter’s second wife, Deborah Lovitt, daughter of Andrew Lovitt, of Yarmouth.[61] They have not been found in the 1871 or 1881 census.
- 9bWilliam John Bell, born about March 1807, baptized 19 July 1807.
- Sarah Bell, baptized 7 June 1812, of whom no further record has been found.
5. Peter6 Harris, of Sandy Cove, Digby Co., Nova Scotia, son of Francis Harris and his first wife, Catharina Lent, was baptized 27 Oct 1765 in Hopewell Dutch Reformed Church, Dutchess Co., New York, U.S.A., with sponsors Isaac Lent and Sara Luister his wife [i.e. his maternal grandparents], and died between 4 May 1831 (when he made his will) and 5 May 1835 (when letters of administration were granted on his estate). This man may safely be presumed to have been the Peter Harris whose name appears (without mention of wife or children) in the muster roll of Loyalists taken at Digby on 29 May 1784, listing him in Hilton’s Company with his name written beside that of his brother-in-law John Comfort, and with his place of settlement given as Digby.[62] This man is spoken of by the nineteenth-century township historian as an early Loyalist settler of Sandy Cove,[63] and more recently Mary Kate Bull, in her well-informed history of Sandy Cove, which appears to account adequately for all its early families, explicitly and unhesitatingly accepts him as such.[64] Although there were other Harrises in the general vicinity,[65] including his exactly-contemporary first cousin and namesake, Peter Harris, son of his uncle Peter Harris, there is no reason to believe that these others were ever connected with Sandy Cove, and the present Peter has a better claim by virtue of his father’s residence there.
Peter Harris was one of the “proprietors” of the parish taxed to pay the sexton’s salary in 1789, following the bulding of old Trinity Anglican Church two years earlier.[66] In that same year he entered into partnership with John Morehouse[67] and built a saw mill on the Lower Mill Brook (now called T R Brook), in 1794 purchasing his partner’s half of the business with the exception of Morehouse’s half of a large deposit of iron ore on the site which is said to have lasted for many years.[68] But this enterprise appears to have been a side-line for Peter Harris, as according to Bull, “Peter was a weaver and a shoemaker. He and his brother [recte son] John grew flax as well as the usual crops and prepared it for spinning by breaking and dressing it. He wove linen and woollen materials to trade for goods and services he needed…. Soon the brothers were able to buy land and the family moved to the south side of the Cove near Mink Cove [now Highland].”[69] Peter Harris is listed between 1790 to 1801 in the accounts of Stephen Fountain’s general store at Sandy Cove.[70]
Peter Harris married 5 March 1793 in old Trinity Anglican Church, Digby,[71] Esther Saunders, “of Digby,” born say 1770, while Peter’s half-sister Hannah, “of Digby,”[72] married a John Saunders in the same church on the same day. Although Saunders family records apparently make no mention of Esther, it is difficult to doubt that she was a sister of this John Saunders, who is known to have been a son of William (“Billey”) Saunders, of Sandy Cove, by the latter’s wife Ruth ____. On 9 October 1794 Peter Harris and John Saunders bought William Saunders’ original grant, lot 30, with its barn, its house and contents, for £45.[73]
In 1799 Peter Harris was one of the seven delegates sent by the Rev. Enoch Towner, a Baptist minister in Lower Granville, to a convention held on 22 June in the Baptist Church, Stoney Beach, Granville, to discuss the formation of a Baptist association embracing the colonies of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.[74] In 1828 “Peter Harris and Esther his wife of Digby Tp.” sold land to (their son) “Francis Harris, yeoman” for £8.[75]
We are on secure ground in identifying Peter Harris, son of Francis, as the father of Engeltje Harris, since she is mentioned in the 1816 will of Peter’s father. This in turn helps to identify his half-brother Francis Harris; for a pair of deeds was drawn in November 1819, in one of which “Peter Harris of Digby … and Esther his wife,” and in the other “Francis Harris of Digby … and Rachel his wife,” mortaged their land to the same group of “loan officers”; while the two documents were drawn separately their content is practically identical.[76]
In turn, Peter’s own will, dated 4 May 1831, mentions this same daughter Engeltje:
I, Peter Harris, in the township of Digby and County of Annapolis, carpenter, being of sound and disposing mind and memory but advanced in years, and considering that it is appointed unto all men once to die, do this fourth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirtyone make and publish this my last will and testament in manner following, viz.:
First, in a reasonable time after it hath pleased almighty God to call my spirit from this transitory state, my will and desire is that my executors hereinafter mentioned cause my body to be decently interred with as little expense as may be nessasary, and after my funerel charges and debts are paid I will and bequeath to my beloved wife Esther all my personal and real estate during her widowhood, but on her death or marriage to be dispersed in manner following:
Secondly I will and bequeath to my son Francis the one eaquel third part of the lots that I now live on, being sixty rods in frunt, beginning at the shore and running to the westward, one third of the length of the lots including the buildings and the one third of the land that belongs to me in the Westcoat farm going the widows third.
Also I will and bequeath to my son Charles the one equel third part of the lots that I now live on, being sixty rods in weadth beginning at Lemuel Saunders’ east line and running to the eastward the the one third of the length of the lot.
Also the one equel third part of the Land that I own in the Westcoat farm, beginning at the eastern end of the land and taking the one third which will be his part in the land that is cleared as the wood land will be devided equally between John and Francis.
Also I will and bequeath to my son John the one equel third part of the lots that I now live on, being sixty rodds in weadth runing acrost the lots taking enough in length to make the third of the Lots liing [sic] between the land given to Francis and Charles, like wise the one third part of the land that I own in the Westcoat lot on the western part of the lot and the wood land is to be eaquel divided between Francis and John that belongs to me in that farm.
Also in order that in twelve months after the death or marriage of my beloved wife Esther, Francis Charles and John Harris is to pay to the four girls the sum of twenty eight pounds which will be nine pound six and eight pence each one of them to pay to be eaquelly divided amongst them.
Also I will and bequeath to my four daughters Catharine, Ruth, Angleche and Phebe seaventy five akers of land, liing [sic] joining Jones Morehouse and Gersham Morehouse on the East side and lands belonging to Garsham Morehouse on the west side.
Also I give unto my four daughters above-mentioned at the death or marriage of their mother all the stalk [i.e. stock] and movables exceptin my carpenter’s tools and ox chains, which is to be equelly divided between the three boys.
Also I order that the stock and movables and the seventy five akers of land and the … [smudged] twenty eight pound paid by the boys shall be equelly divided between my four daughters.
Also I order that the boy that lives [with] me, John Sandell Nellis [?], if he remains till he is twenty one years of age with the family, shall have all the land that belongs to me on the western part of the Westcoat lot included in the widow Morehouses … thir[d] that comes to meat her death.
Lastly I ordain my dear wif[e] together with our son Francis Harris to be executors of this my last will and testament in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and Seal in presence of those whose names are here after subscribed as witnesses.
Signed, sealed, published and delivered … in the presence of … Isaac Morehouse, Nathaniel Westcoat.[77]
A document assenting to the probate signed by the heirs reveals the married names of three of the daughters:
We the undersigned petitioners, heirs of the late Peter Harris of Sandy Cove in Digby … deceased, respectfully pray that the last will and Testament of the said Peter Harris may be duly recorded and administration granted to Francis Harris the Executor named in the Said last will and Testament. Digby 5th [?] May 1835.
Francis Harris
Catharine Cartey
Ruth Welch
Phebe Harris
John Harris
Charles Harris
Angleche Crauell [i.e. Crowell] [78]
We were informed in 1992 by the late Mrs. Cecelia (Coon) Botting that she had been in correspondence with a descendant of Peter, Leah (Mrs. J.D.) Sykora, of 789 Lincoln Blvd., Bedford, Ohio 44146, but we have been unable to locate Mrs. Sykora, and do not know from which child of Peter Harris she is supposed to descend.
Known issue:
- 10Catharine Harris, baptized 12 June 1797 at Sandy Cove by the minister of Trinity Anglican Church, Digby.
- Ruth Harris, baptized 27 August 1798 at Mink Cove by the minister of Trinity Anglican Church, Digby, alive in 1835 and almost certainly still alive in 1881. She is called Ruth Welch in the petition of May 1835, and she is doubtless the widow Ruth Welsh, aged 72, who was enumerated in the 1871 census of nearby Westport, Brier Island, Digby Co. She was enumerated again in 1882, when she is recorded as aged 82 years, born in Nova Scotia, and a Baptist.[79] In both years the only other person in her household was an Annie Clark, born 1862-63 (aged 8 in 1871, 18 in 1881) in Nova Scotia, and no relationship between them is stated. The name Welch (or Welsh) is well represented at Westport, and perhaps some of these persons were her descendants, but we have failed to determine a connection.
- Engeltje Harris, born 1800-01, living 1881, named as “Angalshe” in her paternal grandfather’s will of 1816, and as “Angleche” in her father’s will of 1835. She is called “Angleche Crauell” in the petition of May 1835, enabling us to identify her with the
Anglu[c]he Crowell, aged 70 years, born in Nova Scotia, of German (sic) origin, who appears with her husband Thomas W. Crowell in the 1871 census of Sandy Cove.[80] Thomas West Crowell, Jr., born 23 May 1801 in Barrington Township, Shelburne County, died 15 November 1874 at Sandy Cove, of consumption,[81] was a farmer, of English origin, and is stated in his death record to have been a son of Thomas Crowell and Elizabeth ____. There is no doubt that he was a son of Capt. Thomas West Crowell (ca. 1760-1823), of Sandy Cove, whose second wife was Elizabeth Trask (1775-1860), with whom he is buried in Zion United Church cemetery, Sandy Cove; however, it has been suggested that Thomas Jr. may have really been a son of his father’s first marriage to Sarah Doane.[82] Both are recorded as Baptists in the 1871 census. Enumerated next to them is their son Wesley W. Crowell, with wife Ruth and two children; Ruth Crowell was the informant on the occasion of the death of Thomas Crowell in 1874. Engeltje appears as an 80-year-old widow in the 1881 census of Sandy Cove, but has not been found in the 1891 census; neither have we found a civil registration of her death. In Marion Angrignon’s unpublished notes on Sandy Cove families, she writes:His will was dated 24 July, 1874 but was not recorded until 21 Aug 1902 at which time both wives of his two sons, Wesley and Charles, were then widows. In his will he gives all his worldly goods to his wife Anglecha Crowell and at her death he divides his possessions between his two sons. The two widows of his sons Wesley and Charles also record on the same date, 21 Aug 1902, deeds to each other in which they more particularly describe the properties each will have.
Known issue (further details will be found in Marion Angrignon’s unpublished notes on Sandy Cove families):- Wesley W. Crowell, born about 1824 (aged 46 in 1871, 55 in 1881, 65 in 1891), alive in 1891 but predeceased his wife, who is called a widow in her death record. He is said to have died in 1892 in a well-informed record of this family at Ancestry.com, which however does not supply his parentage, and does not appear to have been contributed by a direct descendant. He married 12 February 1852 at Sandy Cove,[83] Ruth H. Shaw, born about September 1829 (aged 40 in 1871, 51 in 1881, 59 [!] in 1891) at Sandy Cove (per death record), died 14 December 1915 at Sandy Cove, aged 86 years, 3 months; the record, which fails to supply her maiden surname, states that burial was to be in Sandy Cove Baptist Cemetery, but no stone for her is recorded in the cemetery transcription printed in Bull’s Sandy Cove. Wesley is enumerated next to Thomas and Engeltje (Harris) Crowell in the 1871 census,[84] and as noted above, his wife Ruth may be the Ruth Harris who reported the death of Thomas Crowell in 1874. He is enumerated near the widow Angleche Crowell in 1881, and the 1891 census shows that his parents were both born in Nova Scotia as required. He was a charter member of the Sandy Cove Baptist Church in 1883.[85] Known issue:
- Emma Jane Crowell, born about 1853-54 (aged 17 in 1871, 21 in 1874); living with her parents in 1871 but not in 1871. She, then of Sandy Cove, married 8 January 1874 at the Baptist Church, Sandy Cove, by licence, Samuel Gidney, born 1848-49 (aged 25 in 1874) at Mink Cove, a farmer of Digby Neck at the time of their marriage, son of Edwin Gidney and Lydia ____. The record of their marriage names both sets of parents, without however supplying the maiden surnames of the mothers. The witnesses were Annie E. Morse and Caddie Morehouse. Descendants are traced in Marion Angrignon’s notes.
- William Chipman Crowell, born 1855-56 (aged 15 in 1871, 25 in 1881) at Sandy Cove (per birthrecord of son Ralph), died 1885 (per the 1962 Sanford genealogy, infra). His widow and their two sons are found in his parents’ household in the 1891 census. He married 14 December 1881,[86] Annie Edith (or Edith Annie) Sanford, born 6 February 1862, died 17 January 1886, and buried at Clementsvale, daughter of Ezekiel Pryor Sanford, of Bear River or Clementsvale, Nova Scotia, by his second wife, Harriet Amanda Brown.
Known issue:
- Ralph Chipman Crowell, born 21 September 1882 at Sandy Cove (per birth record), died 1968 at Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The 1962 Sanford genealogy names him as his parents’ only surviving child, and note that his wife was a stepdaughter of his maternal uncle Clarence R. Sanford. He married 30 December 1904 at Bear River, Annapolis County, Gladys Alitha Hilts, born 8 January 1887 at Bear River, died 1967, daughter of Reuben Hilts and Euphemia Yarrigle. They moved to the U.S. in 1925, and are found at Marlborough, Middlesex County, Masachusetts, in 1930, and at Hudson Town, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1940. Only known child:
- Emma Sylvia Crowell, born 1 July 1906 at Sandy Cove (birth registered as Sylveta Emma), died (unmarried?) 1998 at Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts.
- Ralph Chipman Crowell, born 21 September 1882 at Sandy Cove (per birth record), died 1968 at Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The 1962 Sanford genealogy names him as his parents’ only surviving child, and note that his wife was a stepdaughter of his maternal uncle Clarence R. Sanford. He married 30 December 1904 at Bear River, Annapolis County, Gladys Alitha Hilts, born 8 January 1887 at Bear River, died 1967, daughter of Reuben Hilts and Euphemia Yarrigle. They moved to the U.S. in 1925, and are found at Marlborough, Middlesex County, Masachusetts, in 1930, and at Hudson Town, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in 1940. Only known child:
- Augusta Crowell, born about 1871 (aged 12 [sic] in 1881, 22 in 1891).
- Charles T. Crowell, born 7 August 1829 (per the 1901 census) in Nova Scotia, died in 1901, aged 73 years (sic), and buried in Sandy Cove Baptist Cemetery.[87] As “my nephew” he was appointed one of the executors of the 1877 will of his uncle Charles Harris (no. 9 below), although he subsequently relinquished the responsibility. He married before 1858, Ellen ____, born 25 February 1830 (per the 1901 census) in Nova Scotia, living 1901. They are found in the 1871 census of Sandy Cove, in which the adjacent entry is the houshold of his first cousin, Hiram Harris, son of Charles Harris (no. 12 below); he is called a farmer, and the family were Baptists. In 1881 they were in their own household; he is still called a farmer and was Bible Christian while his wife was Baptist; there were no longer any children living with them.[88] They are also found in the 1891 and 1901 censuses of Sandy Cove.
- George R. Crowell, born 1857-58 (aged 13 in 1871); he was no longer living with his parents in 1881, and we have not found him in the LDS index to the census of that year.
- Wesley W. Crowell, born about 1824 (aged 46 in 1871, 55 in 1881, 65 in 1891), alive in 1891 but predeceased his wife, who is called a widow in her death record. He is said to have died in 1892 in a well-informed record of this family at Ancestry.com, which however does not supply his parentage, and does not appear to have been contributed by a direct descendant. He married 12 February 1852 at Sandy Cove,[83] Ruth H. Shaw, born about September 1829 (aged 40 in 1871, 51 in 1881, 59 [!] in 1891) at Sandy Cove (per death record), died 14 December 1915 at Sandy Cove, aged 86 years, 3 months; the record, which fails to supply her maiden surname, states that burial was to be in Sandy Cove Baptist Cemetery, but no stone for her is recorded in the cemetery transcription printed in Bull’s Sandy Cove. Wesley is enumerated next to Thomas and Engeltje (Harris) Crowell in the 1871 census,[84] and as noted above, his wife Ruth may be the Ruth Harris who reported the death of Thomas Crowell in 1874. He is enumerated near the widow Angleche Crowell in 1881, and the 1891 census shows that his parents were both born in Nova Scotia as required. He was a charter member of the Sandy Cove Baptist Church in 1883.[85] Known issue:
- 11Francis Harris, born ca. 1804 in Nova Scotia.
- 12Charles Harris, born 1808-09 (aged 62 years in 1871) in Nova Scotia.
- 13John Harris, born 1810-11 (aged 60 years in 1871) in Nova Scotia.
- Phoebe Harris (position uncertain), still unmarried in May of 1835, of whom we have found no further record.
6. Catharine6 Harris, daughter of Francis Harris by his first wife, Catharina Lent, was born 5 October 1767, presumably in Fishkill Tp., Dutchess Co., New York, baptized 4 November 1767 in the Hopewell Dutch Church, Fishkill Tp. (no sponsors being named in the record), and died 10 August 1846 in Lincoln Co., U.C. (now Ontario). She married by New York licence dated 13 July 1782,[89] John Comfort, Jr., of Digby Tp., Annapolis (now Digby) Co., Nova Scotia, of Montgomery Tp., Orange Co., N.Y., and finally of Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., Upper Canada, born say 1759, probably in Montgomery Tp., died Jan. 1830 in Lincoln Co., U.C.,[90] son of John Comfort, of Montgomery Tp., by the latter’s wife Anna Maul. He served in the Revolution in the Ulster Co. Militia, 4th Regiment, with his brothers Benjamin and Samuel. But he was probably a Loyalist sympathiser, as he and his wife accompanied her father to Digby, Nova Scotia, at the end of the Revolutionary War, and his name appears next to that of his brother-in-law Peter Harris in a muster roll of Loyalists taken at Digby in May 1784, showing his family as members of Hilton’s Company and their place of settlement as Digby.[91] However, they returned to the United States by 1790, when he appears in the census of Montgomery Tp., N.Y., as John Comfort, Jr., and he and his wife Catherine sold land in Montgomery in 1798. His father’s 1794 will bequeaths “unto my son John and to his heirs and assigns forever all that estate on which he now liveth, with … appurtenances, known and distinguished by lot no. 11.”[92] Finally, leaving behind their two eldest daughters, who were by then married, he and his wife returned to Canada about 1802, going to Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., U.C., where they founded a large family. Among their ten children was:
- 14Francis Comfort, born 28 Aug 1800, died June 1880.
7. Hannah6 Harris, daughter of Francis Harris by his second wife, Engeltje Vandewater, was baptized 27 August 1777 in the New Hackensack Dutch Church, and still alive in 1817. She married 5 March 1793 in old Trinity Anglican Church, Digby,[93] evidently in a double wedding with her half-brother Peter above, John Saunders, who was perhaps a brother of her brother Peter’s wife Esther Saunders, and certainly a son of Billy Saunders, weaver, an early settler of Sandy Cove who was one of the Loyalists mustered at Digby in 1784,[94] by the latter’s wife Ruth Raymond (a distant kinswoman of Francis Harris through the Raymond family).[95] Hannah Harris and her husband were both of Digby Cove at the time of their marriage.[96] On 9 October 1794 he and Peter Harris bought John’s father’s original grant, lot 30, with its barn, its house and contents, for £45.[97] The name of John Saunders appears from 1793 to 1814 in the accounts of the general store kept at Sandy Cove by Stephen Fountain.[98] He was presumably the one of this name who was the recipient of 100 acres in the “Hatfield grant” of 1801, in which the township of Digby was set off from Annapolis,[99] and who shared in the 1808 grant to the citizens of Sandy Cove of pasture land at the head of St. Mary’s Bay.[100] He is perhaps also the John Saunders enumerated in the 1838 census of Sandy Cove, with a household consisting (exclusive of himself) of 3 males 14+, 2 females 14+, 1 female 7-14, 1 male 0-6, although the children under 14 cannot possibly have been his own, and must have been grandchildren. Bull’s history of Sandy Cove speaks of John as a farmer, who “also went to sea and died as [a] Captain.”[101] A John Saunders is mentioned as of Sandy Cove in 1840 in Wilson’s Digby, but this is possibly a younger man of the same name.[102]
A letter written by Hannah (Harris) Saunders in December 1817 to her half-sister Catharine (Harris) Comfort, mentioning the death of their father, was in the possession of the late Cecelia Botting. According to Mrs. Botting, this indicated that Hannah had five sons and six daughters, although only two of the childen are mentioned by name: Billy, aged 24, and Francis, aged 20, who were then living at home. The name Saunders appears frequently in later records of Sandy Cove, although we have not succeeded in reconstructing the family with much certainty or completeness. There are a number of Saunders probates at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia which we have not seen, and which might through further light on the matter.
For further details of this family group see Ross W. McCurdy, Descendants of Francis Harris, United Empire Loyalist of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.
8. Francis6 Harris, Jr., of Bayham Tp., Bayham Tp., Elgin Co., U.C. (now Ontario), son of Francis Harris and Engeltje Vandewater, was born in May or June of 1788 (if the age given on his tombstone is correct) in Nova Scotia, was baptized 20 September 1791 at Sandy Cove by the minister of Trinity Anglican Church, Digby, died 25 September 1847, aged 59 years, 3 months (according to his tombstone), and was buried in Estherville Cemetery, Estherville, Ontario. The apparent three-year gap between his birth and baptism would not be extraordinary for the residents of rural Digby County in this period. He married 16 March 1808 in old Trinity Anglican Church, Digby,[103] Rachel McDormand (alive at the making of her husband’s will on 29 March 1847), said to have been born ca. 1784 at Westport, Brier Island, Digby County, Nova Scotia, daughter of James3 (Robert2, William1) McDormand, of Westport, and afterwards of Port Burwell, by the latter’s wife Ann, daughter of Judah Rice, of an older planter family from Massachusetts.[104] There is no indication that Rachel was buried with her husband.
Francis Harris is named in his father’s will of 1817, and later that same year his four children are mentioned, but not named, in a letter written by his sister Hannah. Some time between 1817 and July of 1824 he took his family to Bayham Tp., Elgin Co., U.C. (now Ontario), near the village of Port Burwell. He was of E½ lot 21 in the 3rd concession of Bayham, and also had a village lot in Port Burwell, “being number six north of Hagamon Street,” both pieces of land being mentioned in his will (cited below). Francis Harris is listed in the 1842 census of Bayham Tp., in which he is called a carpenter, the “proprietor” of the land he inhabited, and his family is said to consist of eight persons, all born in English-speaking Canada.[105] His wife Rachel Harris was received into the Port Burwell Baptist Church with a letter of recommendation dated 3 July 1824. However, on 15 April 1844 it was “voted that sister Rachel Harris be dismissed.” This family does not appear in the 1851-52 census of Bayham Tp., part of which however is missing.[106]
Calnek, the Annapolis County historian, provides an invaluable clue in referring to Rachel McDormand’s husband as “Francis Harris, jun.”[107] Nonetheless, the identity of the Francis Harris who married Rachel McDormand with the one mentioned in the 1817 will of Francis Harris (Sr.) long gave us trouble; for despite the strong presumption, based on Calnek’s statement, that the former was son of a Francis Harris, his will names no collateral relatives, nor gives any clue as to his origin. Yet his family structure conformed well to that required by the letter written in 1817 by Hannah (Harris) Saunders, and he bestowed on his eldest son the somewhat uncommon name of Stephen, which was that of his ostensible brother. And although definitive proof of the connection was eventually found, it was satisfying to us that in the interim, we were able to dispose of a few candidates who might have been regarded as having some rival claim to consideration as the son of Francis Harris (d. 1817) of Sandy Cove.[108] The IGI shows a Francis Harris who with his wife Sally Bush had a son William, baptized 15 July 1819 by the minister of the Digby Anglican Church, but examination of the original register showed that the parents, who were of Joggin, were designated “negroes.”[109] And the 1838 census of Digby Tp. lists a Francis Harris with a wife and one child, but further consideration revealed that this entry was clearly a better match for the present man’s nephew, Francis Harris (no. 8 below).
The definitive proof that the Francis Harris who married Rachel McDormand belongs to this family is a pair of deeds, drawn in November 1819, in one of which “Peter Harris of Digby … and Esther his wife,” and in the other “Francis Harris of Digby … and Rachel his wife,” mortaged their land to the same group of “loan officers.” While the two documents were drawn separately, and not necessarily on the same day (the day of the month in the second of them being indistinct), they were made sufficiently close together to be recorded as consecutive entries in the registry of deeds, their content is practically identical, and one of the witnesses, John Morehouse, appears in both.[110] Recalling that the Peter Harris who married Esther Saunders is firmly connected to his father through their each mentioning his daughter Engeltje in their respective wills, the chain of evidence is complete.
Francis Harris’s will, probably made at the very end of his life (the date given with the signatures being actually later than that given on his tombstone), is informative as to his family structure:
In the name of God, Amen. I, Francis Harris, of the Township of Bayham in the County of Middlesex and Province of Canada, yeoman, being in good and tolerable health of body and of perfect mind and memory, thanks be to God, calling into mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men to die, do make and ordain this my last will and testament; that is to say:
Principally … I give and recommend my soul unto the hands of Almighty God who gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth, to be buried in Christian burial…. And as touching such worldly things and estate with which it has pleased God to bless me with in this life, I give and dispose of it in manner following, viz.:
Firstly … to Stephen Harris, my eldest son, I will and bequeath fifty pounds of lawful money.
Also to Nelson Harris, my second son, I will and bequeath twenty five pounds of lawful money.
Also to Holand Harris, my third, son I will and bequeath twenty five pounds of lawful money.
And also to Francis Harris, my fifth son, I will and bequeath twelve pound ten shillings lawful money.
And also to Sidney Harris, my sixth son, I will and bequeath twelve pound ten shillings lawful money.
After my decease I will unto my beloved wife Rachel Harris … the lot of land on which I now live, being the east half of lot number twenty one in the third concession in Bayham, one hundred acres with all its appurtenances and benefits, together with all the stock and household furniture, the said household furniture to have and to hold forever subject to her own disposal, and also to hold the land before-mentioned during her life, and after her decease the before-described hundred acres of land to be the property of my fourth son, James Harris, and Joseph, my seventh son, to be equally divided between them or their heirs.
And also to my daughter Caroline I will and bequeath one pound of lawful money.
And also unto my daughter Mary Ann I will and bequeath one pound of lawful money.
And also I will and bequeath unto Sarah, my daughter, the sum of one pound of lawful money.
And also I will and bequeath unto my daughter Eliza the sum of one pound of lawful money.
And also unto my daughter Charlotte I will and bequeath one pound of lawful money.
I also will and appoint my wife Rachel Harris and my son James Harris and my friend Francis William Plowman to be my lawful executors…, especially, to dispose of my village lot in Port Burwell, being number six north of Hagamon Street, and also to collect all of the three notes which I hold against James Scanlan, and out of these and the lot in the Port to pay unto the heirs what I have herein willed to each … with the exception of my sons James and my son Joseph, which I have herein provided for. And in case the sale and collection of the land at the Port and the collection of the notes mentioned shall overrun what I have willed the last of my sons and daughters, the remainder shall be the property of my wife Rachel Harris.
In witness I have hereunto signed, seal[e]d and published.
Which said will is witnessed by James A[n]derson of the Township of Bayham aforesaid, yeoman, and Edmond Titus of the same place, yeoman….
In witness whereof he the said James Harris hath hereunto set his hand and seal on the third day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty eight.
James Harris
Signed and sealed in presence of
James Anderson
Oscar Gracy [111]
For further details of this family group see Ross W. McCurdy, Descendants of Francis Harris, United Empire Loyalist of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.
Third Canadian Generation
9. Clarissa7 Bell, daughter of Joseph Bell, of Shelburne, by the latter’s wife Catharine Harris, was baptized 1 April 1804, died 19 October 1846, and was buried 22 October following in Christ Church Cemetery, Shelburne, a tombstone surviving in 2002.[112] She married by 1827, James Hemeon, baptized 1 March 1801 in Christ Chuch, Shelburne, living 1846 (there is no surviving tombstone for him in Christ Church Cemetery), son of Philip Hemeon, of Shelburne, by the latter’s wife Mary Anne.[113] James is erroneously called Philip (the name of his father) by Jones. James “Hemion,” carpenter, a Methodist, is found in the 1827 census of Shelburne Tp. with a household of 1 male and 1 female.[114] He is called of Shelburne in the baptismal records of his sons Cornelius (1830) and Augustus (1833). He is called of Ohio, farmer, in the baptismal record of his daughter Catharine (1835), and of Oak Hill, farmer, in that of his son Joseph (1838). He is again called of Ohio in his wife’s burial record. He has not been found in the 1881 census. There is valuable material on James Hemeon and his family in the notes of Thomas Brenton Smith in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia (MG 1, vols. 817-863, at vol. 838, s.v. Hemeon). Jones mentions that Clarissa Bell and James Hemeon had a “great-granddaughter, Naomi (Thorburn) Rowse…, living in Shelburne in 1952…, to whom we are indebted for information on this family.”[115] Clarissa Bell and James Hemeon had at least the following issue (all baptisms in Christ Church, Shelburne):
- Elmira Hemeon, born 1827-28 (aged 53 in 1881) in Nova Scotia, still alive in 1881. She married by 1858, Robert Quinlan, a farmer (according to his daughter Clarissa’s marriage record), born 1826-27 (aged 54 in 1881) in Nova Scotia, alive in 1881. We have not found them in the 1871 census, but they appear in the 1881 Census of the Town of Shelburne, in which Robert is called a lumberman and the family’s religion is given as Canadian Methodist for the parents but Church of England for the children.[116]
Robert Quinlan is called a yeoman in the 1891 marriage record of his son John, but it is not clear whether he was then alive.
Known issue:
- Jane Quinlan, born 1858-59 (aged 22 in 1881), still living unmarried with her parents in 1881, when she was a school teacher. We have found no marriage or death registration for her.
- Clarissa Belle Quinlan, born 1862-63 at Middle Ohio, Shelburne Co., died 1899, aged 36 years, and buried with her husband in Pine Grove Cemetery, Elliott Street, in the town of Shelburne. Although her tombstone gives her name as “Clarissa Belle,” it seems likely she was really named Clarissa Bell after her grandmother; her marriage record gives her name only as Clarissa B. Their obelisk-style tombstone appears to have been inscribed on only two of its four sides, and there are no other obvious family members buried with them.[117] One would expect her to appear in Shelburne County in the 1881 census, but there is no chronologically suitable candidate of any surname in the LDS index to that census. We know it must have been she, and not her husband, who was a grandchild of James Hemeon and Clarissa Bell, as her husbands’ parents were two old for such a connection to have been chronologically possible. She married (as his first wife) 10 February 1892 at Sandy Point Anglican Church, Shelburne Co., by licence,[118] (Capt.) Albert Edward Thorburn, born 31 August 1861 at Jordan River,[119] died 12 March 1950 in his home at Sandy Point, aged over 88 years,[120] and buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, son of James and Dorcas (____) Thorburn, of Jordan River, Shelburne Co., who are named in his marriage record, and with whom he appears as a 19-year-old in the 1881 census, in which he is called a fisherman.[121]
Both parties were living at Sandy Point at the time of their marriage, in the record of which the groom is called a mariner.
Albert Thorburn, of Shelburne Co., seaman, is listed in a directory published in 1896.[122]
He appears as a widower, with his two children by his first wife, in the 1901 census of Sandy Point, Shelburne Co., in which he is called a “capton” (i.e. captain).[123]
He married secondly 14 June 1906 at Mahone Bay Lutheran Church, Lunenburg County,[124] Mary Celestia Burroughs, and they appear with the two children of his first marriage and three additional children of their own in the 1911 census of Sandy Point.[125]
He is called a captain in his death record; his second wife probably survived him as he is there referred to as “married” rather than as a widower. Albert Thorburn and his first wife had only two (surviving) children:
- Naomi Ellen Thorburn, born 13 January 1893 (per 1901 census), died 7 December 1982, aged 89 years, and buried (as Naomi Ellen Rowse) in Pine Grove Cemetery, Elliott Street, in the town of Shelburne. She was living unmarried with her father in 1911, but subsequently married ____ Rowse, who does not appear to be buried with her. This is the Naomi Rowse of Shelburne mentioned as an informant by R.B. Jones.
- Bertram Thorburn, born 10 [?] August 1894 (per 1901 census); living with his father in 1911.
- Arthur Quinlan, born 1861-62 (aged 19 in 1881) at Ohio, Nova Scotia, living with his parents in 1881.
- John T. Quinlan, born 1865-66 (aged 15 in 1881, 25 in 1891) in Nova Scotia, living with his parents in 1881. He married 30 June 1891 at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, according to Anglican rites, by licence,[126] C. Grace Inglis, born 1869-70 (aged 21 years in 1891) at Mahone Bay, daughter of Charles J. Inglis, merchant, by the latter’s wife Cassandra (?) ____. At the time of their marriage, the record of which names both sets of parents without however supplying the mothers’ maiden surnames, both parties were of Mahone Bay, and the groom was a school-teacher.
- James Cornelius Hemeon, of Liverpool, Queens Co., born 21 March 1830 in Shelburne Co., baptized (as Cornelius James Hemeon) 27 June following. He married in Jan. 1854 at Liverpool (IGI), Caroline Nickerson. He is enumerated at Liverpool in the 1881 census, in which he is called a farmer and trader; he and his children were Canadian Methodists but his wife was a Baptist.[127]
A death notice reads:
James C. Hemeon, who died at his residence, in Liverpool, on Saturday last, after a severe illness of paralysis of the brain, was the eldest son of the late James Hemeon and was born in Shelburne where he learned the trade of a shipwright. When quite a young man he removed to Liverpool and worked for several years with the late John McLeod of Shipyard Point, assisting in the building of a great many vessels for the late John L. Darrow and others. He afterwarde became a ship owner and largely interested in mercantile affairs. By great industry and energy he amassed considerable propery. He was rather retiring in disposition and did not seek for public positions although well qualified to fill them. He was twice married, his second wife surviving him, together with a family of two sons and three daughters. One of his brothers is the Rev. Joseph B. Hemeon, Methodist minister, who resides at Wolfville, and another is Albert M. Hemeon, M.P.P. for this County. The funeral took place on Monday afternoon and was largely attended, the Friendly Society of which deceased had long been a member, walking in front of the hearse. The services at the house and grave were oonducted by Revds. S. Sykes and J. W. Weeks, the Rev. Mr. Ogden, pastor of the Methodist Church of which the deceased was an adherent, being in the United States. The interment was in the family lot in the Methodist cemetery.[128]
Known issue, all born in Nova Scotia:- Winslow Hemeon, born 1859-60 (aged 21 in 1881).
- Emma Hemeon, born 1865-66 (aged 15 in 1881).
- Frederick Hemeon, born 1868-69 (aged 12 in 1881).
- Helen L. Hemeon, born 1871-72 (aged 9 in 1881).
- Eva A. Hemeon, born 1874-75 (aged 6 in 1881).
- Augustus Hemeon, born 16 June 1833, baptized 7 October following. We have not found him in the 1871 or 1881 census.
- Catharine Harris Hemeon, born 7 July 1835, baptized 20 September following.
- (possibly) Almira Hemeon, born 1836 (named in an LDS Patrons’ submission record).
- The Rev. Joseph Bell Hemmeon (sic), born 18 April 1838, baptized 19 September following, died 14 November 1920 at Wolfville, Kings County, N.S., of angina pectoris, and buried there,[129] He married by 1867, Ellen D. ____. They are enumerated at Mills, Cumberland County, in the 1881 census, in which he is called a Methodist clergyman.[130]
He served from 1862 until about 1892 at various stations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.[131] His death record gives his occupation as clergyman, states that he had resided at Wolfville for 30 years, and lists the informant as “Dr. M. Hemmeon, Wolfville, son.”
Known issue:
- Dr. Morley D. Hemmeon, born 1867-68 (aged 13 in 1881, 24 in 1894) in New Brunswick. As Morley D. Hemmeon, teacher, aged 24, born at St. John and residing at Truro, son of J. B. Hemmeon, clergyman, he married 18 July 1894 at Port Hastings, Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Emma F. Laurence, born 1861-62 (aged 32 in 1894), born at Port Hood and residing at Port Hastings, daughter of George Laurence, merchant, and Sarah ____.
- Douglas B. Hemmeon, born 1869-70 (aged 11 in 1881) in New Brunswick. He was a Methodist minister, being admitted in 1893.[132] On 10 June 1912 he is described as Douglas B. Hemmeon, aged 41 years, of Southampton, Bermuda.[133]
- James M. Hemmeon, born 1872-73 (aged 8 in 1881) in New Brunswick.
- Joseph C. Hemmeon, born 1878-79 (aged 2 in 1881) in Nova Scotia.
- Albert M. Hemeon, M.L.A. for Queens County (1887-1896), of Liverpool, Queens, Nova Scotia, born probably about 1841,[134] died 26 April 1896. Despite the uncertainty as to his date of birth, his placement in this family is confirmed by his mention in the death notice of his brother James. He was a merchant, teacher, magistrate, sometime Warden of Queens County, and sat for Queens County as an independent Liberal.[135] He married (as her second husband) 13 March 1864 at Port Medway, Queens Co., Nova Scotia (IGI), Letitia W. (Parks) McVicar, widow of Edw. H. McVicar. They are enumerated at Liverpool in the 1881 census, in which he is called a Justice of the Peace; his reltion was Church of England but the rest of the family were Baptists.[136]
Known issue, all born in Nova Scotia:
- Edward Hemeon, born 1865-66 (aged 15 in 1881).
- George Hemeon, born 1867-68 (aged 13 in 1881).
- Carrie Hemeon, born 1869-70 (aged 11 in 1881).
- Nettie Hemeon, born 1871-72 (aged 9 in 1881).
- Annie Hemeon, born 1873-74 (aged 7 in 1881).
- Emily Jane Hemeon, born 4 April 1843 at Oak Hill, Shelburne Co., baptized 16 July following, died 4 April 1911, apparently on her 68th birthday, of pneumonia,[137] and buried with her husband and two children in Pine Grove Cemetery, Elliott Street, in the town of Shelburne.[138] She married 28 December 1870 at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church, Shelburne Co., by licence,[139] Joseph McNutt Martin, born about 1834 (aged 36 in 1870, 47 in 1881, 76 in 1911) at Jordan River, Nova Scotia, died 18 February 1911, aged 76 years, of organic heart disease,[140] son of Ebenezer and Janet (____) Martin. At the time of their marriage the groom was a house joiner, of Mount Hope, and he is called a carpenter, of Jordan River, in the 1872 birth record of his twin children Oscar and Kate. They were enumerated at Jordan River, Shelburne Co., in the 1881 census, in which Joseph is called a farmer.[141]
We have not found this couple in the 1901 census. At the time of her husband’s death he was residing at East Jordan, Shelburne Co., and was Presbyterian relistion; the informant was a William Martin, of no stated relationship to the deceased. At the time of her death, the widowed Emily was likewise residing at East Jordan; the informant was (her daughter) Kate Doleman. Known issue (this listing is probably complete):
- Oscar McNutt Martin (twin to Kate), born 3 March 1872 in Nova Scotia,[142] died unmarried 1 June 1955 at Lockeport, Shelburne County, aged 85 years, of cerebral hemorrhage, and buried with his parents.[143] At the time of his death he was a retired teacher, of Beech Street, Lockeport. His death was reported by a nephew, ____ Doleman, of Lockeport, whose signature on the record is unfortunately illegible.
- Kate Lulu McNutt Martin (twin to Oscar), born 3 March 1872 in Nova Scotia,[144] died 9 June 1969, aged 97 years; married Capt. Allan Doleman, lost at sea in 1919, who is commemorated on the family tombstone. They had at least one child, a son, who served as informant on the death of his uncle Oscar Martin in 1955.
- (possibly) Clarissa Hemeon, born 1845, died 21 March 1847 (named in an LDS Patrons’ submission record).
9b. William John7 Bell, son of Joseph Bell, of Shelburne, by the latter’s wife Catharine Harris, was born about March 1807, baptized 19 July 1807, died 18 November 1889, aged 82 years, 8 months (from tombstone; civil registration of death not found),
and was buried in the Christ Church Cemetery, Shelburne, where a tombstone, inscribed on three sides, listing him, his wife, and two of their children, survived in 2002.[145] He married (as her second husband) 28 December 1837 in Christ Church, Shelburne, Jane (Wilson) Dennis, born 1806, died 28 March 1900, aged 93 years, 10 months (from tombstone; civil registration of death not found), and buried with her second husband, widow (with issue) of James Dennis, of Barrington Tp., Shelburne Co., sister of the husband of William Bell’s sister Lucretia, and daughter of Obediah Wilson, of Barrington, by the latter’s second wife, Deborah Lovitt, daughter of Andrew Lovitt, of Yarmouth.[146] Their marriage record calls him a shipwright, as do the baptismal records of all seven of his children, and the 1881 census. In 1881 their household included a servant, together with William’s sister, Almira Bell, and a Lucretia Bell, aged 23, who is probably William’s unmarried daughter of that name with the age misstated.[147]
Known issue:[148]
- John Bell, baptized 13 December 1838, died 6 June 1863 at Shanghai, China, and buried with his parents.
- Deborah Wilson Bell, born 1 December 1840, baptized 20 March 1841, died unmarried shortly before 24 April 1865, when she was buried with her parents.
- Dr. George Wilson Bell,[149] born 4 December 1842 (per 1901 census) at Shelburne, baptized 15 August 1844, died 15 July 1908 at Aylesford, Kings Co., N.S., and buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Middleton, Wilmot Tp., Annapolis Co., N.S. He was a physician. He married 16 February 1871 at Amesbury, Merrimack Co., Massachusetts, Maria R.E. Woodbury, born 10 December 1844 (per 1901 census and death record) at Middleton aforesaid, died 17 September 1926 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, aged over 81 years, and buried the next day at Middleton,[150] daughter of Francis Woodbury, of Middleton, by the latter’s wife Elizabeth Phinney Congdon.[151] George Wilson Bell is called a doctor in his marriage record. Bell and his wife are enumerated in the 1881 census at New Caledonia, Annapolis Co., in which he is called a physician and surgeon, and at which time there were no children in the household; his religion was Church of England but his wife’s Canadian Methodist.[152] Before the taking of the 1901 census Bell had removed to Kingston, Kings Co., N.S.; he is called a “doctor” and again there were no children in the household.[153] Probably was no issue of this marriage, as Maria’s death was reported by “F.V. Woodbury, nephew.”
- Catharine Bell, born 17 September 1844 at Shelburne, baptized 9 December following, alive in 1881. She married in October 1869 at Shelburne, according to Anglican rites, by licence,[154] Capt. Edward James Murphy, born 1824-25 (aged 44 in 1869) at Pubnico, Nova Scotia, alive in 1881, son of Edward Murphy, farmer, by the latter’s wife Mary ____. At the time of their marriage, the record of which names both sets of parents without however supplying the maiden surnames of the mothers, both parties were of Shelburne, and the groom was a master mariner. The birth records of his children also call Edward Murphy a mariner, of Shelburne. He is found with his wife and five children in the census of 1881, at which time a Sarah Murphy, possibly Edward’s sister, was also a member of their household; the family’s religion is given as Church of England and Edward’s occuption is again given as master mariner.[155]
Known issue:
- Alice Maud Murphy, born 18 June 1872 at Shelburne,[156] died unmarried 26 July 1943 at Shelburne, aged over 71 years, the informant being “Geo. B. Bruce, of Shelburne, nephew” (son of her younger sister Mary).[157] She was a student in 1881.
- Jane Bell Murphy, born 3 October 1873 at Shelburne;[158] a student in 1881.
- Mary Murphy, born 31 April 1875 at Shelburne;[159] a student in 1881. She married 4 September 1900 at Shelburne, according to Anglican rites,[160] Alfred D. Bruce, born 1872-73 (aged 27 in 1900), son of Jerael Bruce, master mariner, by the latter’s wife Sophia ____. At the time of their marriage, the record of which names both sets of parents without however supplying the maiden surnames of the mothers, both parties were of Shelburne, and the groom was a clerk; the witnesses were W.E. Murphy and Mary E. Nickerson. Their issue included:
- George B. Bruce, of Shelburne, alive on 26 July 1943, when he reported the death of his aunt Maud Bell.
- Maude Murphy, of Shelburne, alive on 24 May 1934, when she reported the death of her aunt Lucretia (Bell) Ryer.
- Isabella Murphy, born 1877-78 (aged 3 in 1881; birth registration not found).
- William Murphy, born in October 1880 (per 1881 census; birth registration not found).
- Mary Isabella Bell, born 1 March 1845, baptized 11 March following.
- William Bell, born 31 July 1846, baptized same day, died the following day.
- Lucretia Bell, born 12 January 1848 at Shelburne, died 24 May 1934 at Shelburne, aged over 86 years, and buried two days later in Pine Grove Cemetery, the death being reported by “Miss Maude Murphy, of Shelburne, niece.”[161] She married 25 October 1900 at Kingston, N.S., by Anglican rites,[162] Thomas E. Ryer, born 1838-39 (aged 61 in 1900) at Shelburne, died 11 August 1911 at Shelburne, aged over 76 years, the informant being his widow.[163] He was a son of Robert Ryer, farmer, by the latter’s wife Elizabeth ____. At the time of their marriage, the record of which names both sets of parents without however supplying the mothers’ maiden surnames, the groom, a widower, was a hotel-keeper; the bride is said to have been a spinster. Thomas Ryer is likewise called an hotel-keeper in his death record. We have found no record of any children, and given Lucretia’s age at their marriage it seems unlikely there were any.
10. Catharine7 Harris, daughter of Peter Harris and Esther Saunders, was baptized 12 June 1797 at Sandy Cove by the minister of Trinity Anglican Church, Digby, died 4 October 1858, “aged 63 years,” and was buried with her husband in Sandy Cove Baptist churchyard. She married (as his first wife) before 1820, Silas Carty, born probably about 1794[164] in Nova Scotia (per 1871 and 1881 censuses), died (intestate) 8 October 1889,[165] aged 95 years according to his tombstone, perhaps (on onomastic grounds) a son of John Carty, of Digby, by the latter’s wife Abigail, daughter of Silas Balcom.[166] She is called Catharine Carty in the petition of May 1835. Her husband fought in the War of 1812 and was one of the last survivors, being one of the 600 men who received an incredibly belated settlement of $30.00 each in 1882-84.[167] He was granted 350 acres of land in Digby Tp. in 1817. He is called a yeoman in the census of Digby Tp. taken in 1838, when his household (excluding himself) included 1 male aged 15+, 2 females aged 15+, 2 males aged 6-14, and 1 female aged 6-14. Silas Carty married (2) some time in 1858-63, Rachael ____,[168] who died in March 1891.[169] Silas Carty and his second wife appear at Sandy Cove in the 1871 census, in which he is called a fisherman, and also in the 1881 census, in which he is called a farmer.[170] On 19 February 1889 the widow Rachel Carty successfully petitioned the probate court as follows:
Silas Carty died intestate leaving personal property undisposed of…. During the lifetime of the said Silas Carty, to wit: upon the 8thth day of October A.D. 1869 the said Silas Carty and your petitioner by deed conveyed unto one Harris Carty all their real estate in consideration of the said Harris Carty entering into a bond and agreement to maintain the said Silas Carty and your petitioner during their natural lives…. The said Harris Carty … took possession of said property and used the farm to his own advantage, and still continues to do so…. The said Harris Carty immediately upon the death of the said Silas Carty took and carried away all the personal property belonging to said estate…. Your petitioner is now in her eighty-fifth year and unable to travel, and your petitioner would most humbly request that a Commission do issue for the purpose of said administration. As your said petitioner resides more than twenty miles from the office of the Judge of Probate for the County of Digby … your petitioner humbly asks that Letters of Administration … be granted to her as said widow….
A valuable source on the Carty family is the research commissioned in the 1980s by a descendant, the late Morton W. Saunders, from the professional genealogist Lois Kernaghan, whose papers have been deposited in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.[171]
For further details of this family group see Ross W. McCurdy, Descendants of Francis Harris, United Empire Loyalist of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.
11. Francis7 Harris, of Sandy Cove, Digby Co., Nova Scotia, son of Peter Harris and Esther Saunders, was born ca. 1804 in Nova Scotia, and died (intestate) 30 November 1885. In 1828 he purchased land from his parents, “Peter Harris and Esther his wife of Digby Tp.,” for £8.[172] He married by 1842, Ruhamah Trask, born 23 July 1807 at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, died in 1871-81, daughter of James Trask, of Yarmouth, by the latter’s wife Sybil, daughter of Samuel Baker.[173] He is enumerated at Sandy Cove in the 1871 census as a farmer, Methodist, of German (sic) origin, aged 67 years, with wife Ruhamah and four children.[174] He is likely the Francis Harris listed at Sandy Cove in a directory published in 1871.[175] In 1881 Francis Harris, aged 77 years, a widow, farmer and fisherman, was enumerated at Sandy Cove.[176] An undated document found in his estate file reads as follows:
To John Holdsworth Esq., Judge of Probate for the County of Digby. In the matter of the estate of Francis Harris late of Sandy Cove, deceased, the petition of James Leslie Adams of Sandy Cove respectfully sheweth that Francis Harris, late of Sandy Cove, died on the 30th day of November A.D. 1885 intestate, leaving real estate goods and chattels which which ought to be administrated upon, and that Sandel Harris his only son has neglected to administer on said estate, and your petitioner being the husband of the only other kin Mary A. Adams, your petitioner therefore prays that you do cite the said Sandel Harris to take administration on said estate and upon his refusal to do so that I … on behalf of my said wife may be allowed to take such administration….
In another document in the file his wife is more fully referred to as Mary Alice Adams. Sandel Harris evidently defaulted on the administration, which was in fact granted to James L. Adams, the estate being finally settled on 26 March 1891.[177]
For further details of this family group see Ross W. McCurdy, Descendants of Francis Harris, United Empire Loyalist of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.
12. Charles7 Harris, of Sandy Cove, Digby Co., Nova Scotia, son of Peter Harris and Esther Saunders, was born 1808-09 (aged 62 years in 1871) in Nova Scotia, and died 11 December 1877 at Mink Cove, aged 71 years.[178] The fact that he names as one of the executors of his will “my nephew Charles T. Crowell” supplies the proof that he was a son of Peter Harris (no. 4). He married before 1833, Abigail [Campbell?],[179] born 1812-13 (aged 58 years in 1871) in Nova Scotia, living 1891 with her daughter Caroline (Harris) Outhouse. They are found at Sandy Cove in the 1871 census, which calls him a farmer, of German origin, and the family were Baptists; his household at the time included a John R. Harris, aged 4, thus born 1866-67 and obviously identical with his grandson Robert Harris, illegitimate son of his daughter Mary. Charles Harris and his son Hiram were among the signers of the 1875 petition to restore Israel Blackford as ferryman “on the East Side of Petit Passage,” this Blackford having lost the position when a ferryman was appointed on the other side, “to our great inconvience as we have frequently had to wait for an hour on the shore for the ferryman to come from the west side.”[180] His will, dated 13 November 1877 and proved 26 May 1878, mentions his wife Abigail, children Hiram Harris, Caroline Outhouse, Louisa Gidney, and Mary D. Merry, and “my grandson Robert, he being the son of daughter Mary,” who in another passage is more explictly called Robert Harris. He appoints as executors “my nephew Charles T. Crowell” (who however subsequently declined to serve in the capacity) and Richard Merry, who although the relationship is not stated was his son-in-law. The document shows that some of his land was directly adjacent to that of his brother, John Harris, below:
… First, I give to my beloved wife Abigal the house wherein I now reside and all that land attached, bounded on the northwest by the Main Road, on the sourthwest and southeast by the lands of John Merritt, and to the east by lands of James Merritt, to have full possession during her natural life. At her decease I then bequeath the above-described house and land to my grandson Robert [Harris], he being the son of [my] daughter Mary….
I also give and bequeath to my beloved wife Abigal all my personal goods and chattels of whatsoever kind that I may be possessed of at my decease. I also give and bequeath to my beloved wife all that piece of land on the north side of the road, bounded by drawing a line through the centre of the well of water, said line to begin at the post road and run in a right angle with the baseline till it strike the lands of John Harris, then southwardly to the lands of said John Harris to the Post Road, then south westerly to the place of beginning, to have full possession during her natural life; and at her decease I give and bequeath the above-described lands to Robert Harris my grandson….
I also give the remainder of my lands on the north side of the main road … [ at least one entire line cut off at page-break] to be divided equally between them in four equal parts, which I direct to be divided in the following manner; that is, I give to my beloved daughter Mary D. Merry the eastern fo[u]rth part of the same to be divided by a line at a right angle with the basline, then I give the adjoining fourth part to my beloved son Hiram Harris and I give the ajoining … [illegible] fourth part to my beloved daughter Caroline Outhouse, and also I give the adjoining and western fourth part to my beloved daughter Louizia Gedney, all the dividing lines to run parelell with the western line where my lands abut the lands of John Heris.
I also give all that piece or parcel of land, being a part of the Wescott farm, to be divided in four equal parts to my four children, viz.: Hiram Harris, Carolin Outhouse, Louizia Gidney and Mary D. Merry. All the … [illeg.] lands are to be held by them, their assignes and heeres, forever, save the exception of the wood on the Westcott lands, which wood I give my beloved daugher Mary D. Merry and my grandson Robert Harris to be cut and removed at their pleasure and con[v]enience without hinderance.
I also appoint my nephew Charles T. Crowell, and Richard Merry, my executors to this my last will and testatment … in witness whereof I set may hand and affix my seal the day and year heretofore written.[181]
Charles T. Crowell subsequently relinquished the right to participate in the administration.
For further details of this family group see Ross W. McCurdy, Descendants of Francis Harris, United Empire Loyalist of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.
13. John7 Harris, of Sandy Cove, Digby Co., Nova Scotia, son of Peter Harris and Esther Saunders, was born 1812-13 (aged 60 years in 1871) in Nova Scotia, and was still alive in 1881. The John Harris whom Bull calls a “brother” of Peter Harris was doubtless this son. He married Ann ____, born 1812-13 (aged 60 years in 1871) in Ireland, died 1871-81. He is found at Sandy Cove in the 1871 census, which calls him a farmer, and Baptist, of German origin, while his wife Ann was a Catholic; their household included their married daughter Sarah and the latter’s family.[182] They were enumerated immediately following his elder brother Charles Harris. His land is mentioned as being adjacent to the testator’s in the 1877 will of his brother Charles. At the taking of the 1881 census he, then a widower, was living in the household of James Merritt, of Sandy Cove, his son-in-law.[183] John Harris, with his brother Charles and nephew Hiram, was among the signers of the 1875 petition, mentioned above, to restore Israel Blackford as ferryman on the East Side of Petit Passage.
For further details of this family group see Ross W. McCurdy, Descendants of Francis Harris, United Empire Loyalist of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia.
14. Francis7 Comfort, of Beamsville, Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., U.C. (now Ontario), son of John Comfort, Jr., and Catharine Harris, was born 28 August 1800 at Montgomery, Orange Co., N.Y., baptized 11 January 1801 in the Goodwill Presbyterian Church, Montgomery,[184] died (testate) on 18 or 19 June 1880 near Beamsville, and was buried in the Clinton Presbyterian churchyard.[185] Brought by his parents to Ontario as a child, Francis Comfort was an elder of the Clinton Presbyterian Church in 1819. He married 20 February 1822, Jemima Wilcox, born 27 December 1801 in Grimsby Tp., Lincoln Co., U.C., died 5 November 1876 near Beamsville, and buried in the Clinton Presbyterian churchyard, daughter of Daniel Wilcox (V) the latter’s wife Mary McIntyre.[186] During the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1838, he served with the 4th Lincoln Regiment. In 1836 he purchased from his brother John, for £200, a farm on lot 19 in the 7th concession of Clinton Tp., and built a house on it after one his father his built was list to fire. He is listed in the 1842, 1851, and 1871 censuses of Clinton Tp. In the 1840s he lost a hand in a threshing-machine accident, and thereafter turned to clerical work, becoming an assessor, tax collector, and census enumerator. The census returns of 1852 testify to his chirographic skill. In a letter written to his son Andrew in 1849 he mentions a visit to his “uncle Daniel Comfort” near Newburgh, N.Y., which the Bottings acknowledge as “one of the main pieces of evidence that he was the grandson of John [Comfort], Sr.”[187] He died (testate) on 18 or 19 June 1880 near Beamsville. The Bottings note that “all his children were well educated; all the sons had advanced education, one or two attending Western Reserve and one Johns Hopkins; three of the daughters were teachers.” Francis Comfort and his wife had ten children, of whom:
- Margaret Comfort, born 11 December 1833 in Clinton Tp., Lincoln Co., Ontario, baptized 18 May 1834 in Clinton Presbyterian Church, died 20 January 1916, and buried in St. Anns Cemetery. She married 23 October 1856, John Kennedy (IV), of St. Anns, Gainsborough Tp., Lincoln Co., U.C., farmer, born 29 February 1832, died 11 October 1897, and buried at St. Anns, son of John Kennedy (III) and Barbara Dean. He was left a 150-acre farm in his father’s will, with the use of the garden reserved to his mother for her lifetime. He became a member of the St. Anns Presbyterian Church on 5 May 1855. His family is found in the 1861 and 1871 censuses of Gainsborough Tp. The Bottings record that “he was much interested in music: for a time the local singing school met each week at his house; he once mortgaged his farm to buy an organ for his children.” They had twelve children, of whom their son John was the great-grandfather of the present compiler, and their daughter Mary Jemima (Kennedy) (Coon) Harcourt was the mother of Mary Cecelia (Coon) Botting, compiler of genealogies of the Comfort and Kennedy families, and other works.[188]
A list of the main Church and Cemetery Records used in these notes
New York
Fishkill and Hopewell: First Reformed Church, Fishkill … [and] First Reformed Church, Hopewell, copied … by Mrs. Jean D. Worden. 1981.
Poughkeepsie: “Records of the First Reformed Church of Poughkeepsie,” 1892 transcript at Adriance Memorial Library [Family History Library microfilm no. 940,278, item 4]. We must reluctantly mention that a published version, First and Second Reformed Dutch Church, Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, 1716-1912, copied … by Mrs. Jean D. Worden (1992), was based on an illegible microfilm of the originals [Family History Library microfilm no. 533,472, items 1-5] and despite brave efforts on the part of the transcriber contains many errors.
Nova Scotia
Digby, N.S.: “Notitia Parochialis of Trinity Parish, Nova Scotia, by Roger Viets, Doctor of Divinity…,” in Digby Township Book, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, reel 11337. Also the modern transcript of this record, P.A.N.S. MG 4, vol. 23, item 3, reel 15032, available online at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1925428
Sandy Cove: “Church of the Nativity, Sandy Cove,” transcribed by Carol Measham, available online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nsdigby/cemeterys/ sandycove_anglican_nativity.htm.
Shelburne, N.S.: Shelburne Records, transcribed by the Nova Scotia Branch of the Public Archives of Canada ca. 1920, typescript, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, MG 4, vol. 141, reel 21958.
Ontario
“Estherville Cemetery, Bayham Township, Elgin County, Ontario, Canada, Gravestone Inscriptions,” transcribed by James McCallum, available online at http://www.elginogs.ca/cemeteries/bayham/estherville.htm.
“Otter Valley Cemetery, Bayham Township, Elgin County, Ontario, Canada, Gravestone Inscriptions, Road between Con. 2 and Con. 3., Bayham Township,” transcribed by Jim McCallum, available online at http://www.elginogs.ca/cemeteries/bayham/ottervalley.htm.
“St. Luke’s Anglican Cemetery, Con. 3, Lot 16, Heritage Line, Bayham Township, Elgin County, Ontario, Canada,” available online at http://www.elginogs.ca/cemeteries/bayham/stluke.htm.
Notes
| 1. | Roderick Bissell Jones, “The Harris Family of Block Island and Dutchess County, N.Y.,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 84, no. 3 (July 1953), 134-48; vol. 84, no. 4 (Oct. 1953), 216-32. |
| 2. | Robert H. Bowerman, “Additional material pertaining to the Harris family of Block Island and Dutchess County,” NYGBR 124 (1993): 222-24. Analysis of Jones’s later writings, which attempt to extend this Harris lineage backward, were found to contain insurmountable flaws by Gale Ion Harris, “Wyllys-Harris-Chambers-Hamlin-Smith,” The American Genealogist 64 (1989): 226-32. |
| 3. | Gale Ion Harris, “The supposed children of Thomas Harris of Dutchess County, New York: Reevaluation and Revisions,” NYGBR 133 (2002): 3-18; “Walter and Mary (Fry) Harris of New London, Connecticut,” NEHGR 156 (2002), 145-58, 262-79, 357-72. Miriam (Harris) Coult did indeed belong to the family of William1 Harris, her name alone being almost sufficient to establish her as a daughter of Thomas Harris and Miriam Willey, but Harris makes a compelling case against her having brothers Peter, Stephen, and Joseph Harris, for none of whom Jones could find any baptismal records. Ironically, as Harris notes (NYGBR 133:12 n. 72), Jones was well aware (see NYGBR 84:139, footnote) that the family of Peter Harris, of New London, and his wife Elizabeth Manwaring, contained a “trio of brothers” with precisely these names, yet he insisted that they were “another” three men. |
| 4. | With the recent exception of Frank J. Doherty, Settlers of the Beekman Patent, Dutchess County, New York, vol. 6 (2001), whose account of the Harrises postdates that given in the first appearance of the present page. |
| 5. | For more detail on this matter see our The descendants of Hendrick Hegeman, of Flatbush, Kings County, Long Island, New York. |
| 6. | Terrence M. Punch, Genealogical Research in Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1978), 114. |
| 7. | Roderick Bissell Jones, “The Harris Family of Block Island and Dutchess County, N.Y.,” NYGBR 84 (1953): 134-48, 216-32, at pp. 143-6, which tentatively but correctly identifies Joseph’s wife, and notes the mention of him in Francis Filkin’s account-book, among other sources. But notice the error in its account of Joseph’s parentage, already referred to, and corrected in the articles by Gale Ion Harris previously cited. |
| 8. | G.I. Harris, in NYGBR 133:14-15. |
| 9. | R.B. Jones, in NYGBR 84:139 n., citing Waterbury Deeds, v. 3, p. 441, in a passage in which he was unaware he was referring to the present man. |
| 10. | Year Book [of the] Dutchess County Historical Society, 25:47. |
| 11. | Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, 7:21. |
| 12. | Francis Filkin’s account-book, published as Account book of a country store keeper in the 18th century at Poughkeepsie (Poughkeepsie, 1911), pp. 92, 93. |
| 13. | Filkin’s account-book, 92. |
| 14. | G.I. Harris does not accept the attribution of a son John to this couple by R.B. Jones. |
| 15. | Another line of descent from him and his wife is traced, through the Van Vliet family, in Ruth Ellsworth Richardson, Samuel Richardson (1602-1658) and Josiah Ellsworth (1629-1689): some descendants (1974). |
| 16. | Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 2nd Report (1904), 635-6. |
| 17. | Names of persons for whom marriage licenses were issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York, previous to 1784 (Albany, 1860), 172. Record of the actual marriage has not been discovered. |
| 18. | This connection, which is consistent with contemporary records, is given in “an ancient parchment, the ‘Van Kleeck chart’ … now in the possession of the Dutchess County Historical Society,” transcribed in Prentiss Glazier’s Van Kleeck family of Dutchess County, New York (typescript, 1974, New York Genealogical & Biographical Society), and referred to in p. 3 of his text. Gideon DuBois was baptized 11 January 1719 in the Kingston Dutch Church, son of Matthys DuBois and Sara Matthys [van Keulen] (Kingston Dutch Reformed Church baptismal register, entry no. 2628), and older brother of Jeremiah DuBois, baptized 18 May 1721 in the same church (Ibid., entry no. 2879), who married Rachel Viele, and served with her as a baptismal sponsor for the third child of Sarah (DuBois) Harris. It is not clear precisely when Gideon DuBois married Sara van Kleeck, but they served together as baptismal sponsors on 8 May 1740 in the Poughkeepsie Dutch Church, although no relationship is stated between them in the record. For Sara van Kleeck see Lorine McGinnis Schulze, “Jan Corneliszen Damen in the New World,” New Netherland Connections 4 (1999): 47-56, at p. 52; Bruce A. Bennett, “Pierre1 Parmentier of New Amsterdam and his Dutchess County descendants,” pt. 1, New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 138 (2007): 85-96, at p. 93. |
| 19. | Our source here, as for all the Shelburne church and cemetery records, is Shelburne Records, transcribed by the Nova Scotia Branch of the Public Archives of Canada ca. 1920, typescript, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, MG 4, vol. 141, reel 21958. |
| 20. | R.B. Jones, citing “Colonial Muster Rolls,” in Second Annual Report of the State Historian of the State of New York (1896), pp. 520, 535, 555, 700. |
| 21. | Eighteenth Century Records of the portion of Dutchess County, New York, that was included in Rombout Precinct and the original town of Fishkill (Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, VI, 1938), 27. |
| 22. | New Jersey Volunteers Authorization to Recruit, available online at http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/njv/njvrcrt.htm, citing Shelburne County, Nova Scotia Museum, Captain Peter Harris file. |
| 23. | R.B. Jones, citing Helen Wilkinson Reynolds, Records of Christ Church, Poughkeepsie (1911), v. I, pp. 14, 17, 19, 48, 379. |
| 24. | R.B. Jones, in NYGBR; the original materials which he summarizes are in the Harris files at the Provincial Archives of Nova Scotia (hereafter P.A.N.S.), MG 100, vol. 161, no. 54; reel 15201. |
| 25. | Eighteenth Century Records…, mortages, no. 152. |
| 26. | Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 2nd Report, 635-6; Peter Wilson Coldham, American Loyalist Claims, volume I, abstracted from the Public Record Office, Audit Office Series 13, Bundles 1-35 & 37 (Washington, D.C.: National Genealogical Society, 1980), 218-19; also Harris file in P.A.N.S. |
| 27. | Harris file, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, MG 100, vol. 161, no. 54, reel 15201. |
| 28. | This man’s will was made no earlier than 1793, although two different dates are given in Eighteenth Century Records of … Rombout Precinct: estates, no. 108, and in Frank J. Doherty, Settlers of the Beekman Patent, 3 (1995), p. 617. |
| 29. | Marion Robertson, King’s Bounty: A History of Early Shelburne, Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1983), p. 78. |
| 30. | There is a notice of Capt. Nathaniel Vernon in Donald J. Gara, British Legion Biographical Sketches, Cavalry Officers, available online at http://www.royalprovincial.com/Military/rhist/britlegn/blcav1.htm, where he is identified with the Nathaniel Vernon, Sheriff of Chester County, Pennsylvania, mentioned in Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American, 2:387, whose confiscated estates became vested in his four sons, a fact corroborated by John Hill Martin, Chester (and its vicinity), Delaware County, in Pennsylvania; with genealogical sketches of some old families (Philadelphia, 1877), p. 188. His son, Augustus Vernon, died 10 April 1856, aged 50 years, leaving behind a family, and was buried in Christ Church Cemetery, Shelburne, where a tombstone survived in 2002. |
| 31. | Controlled extracts for the marriage register of Christ Church, Shelburne, 1783-1869, in the IGI, batches M510051, M534151. |
| 32. | A photocopy of this document will be found in the Harris file, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, MG 100, vol. 161, no. 54, reel 15201. |
| 33. | Controlled extracts from the baptismal register of Christ Church, Shelburne, 1783-1869, as indexed in the IGI, batch C510051. |
| 34. | Gale Ion Harris, “The supposed children of Thomas Harris of Dutchess County, New York,” at p. 16. |
| 35. | NYGBR 69:291. |
| 36. | Eighteenth-century records of the portion of Dutchess County, New York, that was included in Rombout Precinct and the original Town of Fishkill (Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, vol. VI, 1938), p. 27. |
| 37. | “Francis Harris with Isaac Lent (lately deceased) gave a bond on March 16, 1768, to Charles LeRoux for £600; and Harris and LeRoux have agreed that LeRoux will alllow to Harris and the heirs of Isaac Lent, deceased, extension of payment date” (Eighteenth-century records of … Rombout Precinct and the original Town of Fishkill, mortgagee no. 100, pp. 143-4, citing Dutchess Co. Mortgages, Liber III, page 114, June 1771. |
| 38. | ”Notitia Parochialis of Trinity Parish, Nova Scotia” (see list of church and cemetery records at end of these notes. The entry calls her only “wife of Francis Harris,” but the date is pretty good agreement with by a letter written by her daughter Hannah (Harris) Saunders in December 1817 (see below), mentioning Evangeline’s death six [sic] years earlier. |
| 39. | Wilson V. Ledley, “The Vanderwaters of New York: The First Five Generations,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 98 (1967): 23-33, 95-98, 153-58, 212-21, at p. 95, where for some unfathomable reason Francis Harris is described as the “widower of Catherine Smith.” Previously, some of this material had appeared in a manuscript deposited by the author at the Holland Society of New York in 1958, and its existence, and the chronological implausibility of Ledley’s claim, were kindly brought to our attention by Ross W. McCurdy. Peter’s sister (almost certainly), Engeltje Vandewater, married 29 June 1750 in the Fishkill Dutch Church, Jonas Schoonhoven, from Esopus (now Kingston). Ledley, without citing any evidence, claims that she afterward became the wife of Francis Harris. But had she been so, she would surely have been called a widow in their marriage record, since he is called a widower. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible that a woman first married in 1750 could still have been bearing children so late as 1788.
Peter Vandewater and Egtje De Lange, who were married 2 February 1744 at Fishkill (no places of origin or residence for them being given in the record), had the following known children:
Peter Vandewater was a son of Jacobus van de Water and Helena Loyse/Losee, and a grandson of Benjamin van de Water and Engeltje Lieverse. Egtje De Lange was a daughter of Frans/Francis De Lange (d. 1755), of Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and New York City, by the latter’s wife Maria/Marytjen van Schaick, as (per Ledley) she is named as “Egie” in his 1751 will. The marriage intentions of Frans De Lange and Maritje van Schaick were recorded 31 July 1703 in the Albany Dutch Reformed Church, he being recorded as born at Esopus, Ulster Co., and residing in New York City, and she as born and residing at Kinderhook; the marriage ensued on 6 September of that year. Unfortunately, none of the baptismal sponsorships of their children gives an obvious clue to the identity of Maria van Schaick, but as has been noted by van Schaick researchers, her second son was named Niclaas, and there was a Niclaes van Schaick of Kinderhook who was of about the right age to have been her father. The known issue of Frans De Lange and Maria van Schaick was as follows:
|
| 40. | Eighteenth Century Records…, mortages, no. 152. Such Dutchess County records as are available to us do not throw much further light on Peter Vandewater. His property lay somewhere between Hopewell Church and Fishkill Landing on the Hudson River (Ibid., deeds, no. 120; mortages, no. 25, 118, 152, 172, 314). When in 1783 he sold 158 acres of land at Wappingers Kill to a Jacobus Vandewater, both are designated “yeoman” (Ibid., deeds, no. 150), suggesting considerable social status, but he was probably not wealthy, as he had to mortgage property on two other occasions (Ibid., mortgages, nos. 36, 38). |
| 41. | R.B. Jones, in NYGBR 84:145. |
| 42. | Further details of the transportation will be found in Mike Parker, Historic Digby: Imgaes of our Past (Halifax, 2000), p. viii. |
| 43. | W.A. Calnek & A.W. Savary, History of the County of Annapolis, 2 vols. (Toronto, 1897), 2:117-27, at p. 121; Isaiah W. Wilson, A Geography and History of the County of Digby, Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1900), 70-73, at p. 72. It will be noticed that this total of three children will not account for the two children of his first marriage, so that they cannot have been living with him at the time; and it also shows that his youngest child — whether Francis or Sarah — was born after 1783 and, consequently, in Nova Scotia, a conclusion corroborated by the appearance of four children in a list of 1788 mentioned below. |
| 44. | Marion Gilroy, Loyalists and Land Settlement in Nova Scotia (Public Archives of Nova Scotia Publication No. 4, Halifax, 1937), p. 33; Wilson’s Digby, p. 64. |
| 45. | Gilroy, 14; Mary Kate Bull, Sandy Cove: The History of a Nova Scotia Village (Hantsport, N.S., 1978), 17. |
| 46. | This memorial and associated documents can be found at http://www.novascotia.ca/nsarm/virtual/landpapers/archives.asp?ID=1129. Cf. Bull’s Sandy Cove, 19, 127. |
| 47. | There are references to men named Francis Harris in Wilson’s Digby, pp. 60, 62, 64, 93; but they are not particularly lucid and it is not clear whether they all pertain to the same person. |
| 48. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 26. |
| 49. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 124-26, at p. 125, citing Stephen Fountain’s account book in the possession of Mrs. Lenika (Eldridge) Ensor, of Sandy Cove, also available on microfilm at the Public Archives of Canada and at P.A.N.S. |
| 50. | Wilson’s Digby, 385-7. |
| 51. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 59. |
| 52. | Wilson’s Digby, 133, 389-92, at p. 389; Abraham Hatfield, The Hatfields of Westchester: a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield, of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York (New York, 1935), 69. |
| 53. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 38. |
| 54. | Original will of Francis Harris, of Digby, 1 April 1816, Digby County Probates no. A-27, P.A.N.S. reel 20457, collated against registered copy, P.A.N.S. R.G. 48, reel 19326, and punctuation added and capitalization normalized for the sake of clarity. We have inserted in curly braces a few words which appear only in the registered copy, evidently inserted to correct defects in the legal phrasing. |
| 55. | Information contained in a letter to the compiler from the late Cecelia (Coon) Botting, of Tucson, Arizona, dated 13 February 1991; we have not personally seen the letter to which she refers. Mrs. Botting’s exact words, in describing the letter, were as follows: “From the letter of Hannah Saunders to John and Catherine [née Harris] Comfort and delivered by Stephen Harris to Catharine, she gives the approximate date of her parents’ deaths, news of neighbors, and the names of her two oldest boys: Billy who was 24 and Francis who was 20, both living at home. Her letter was dated December 1817 and that means Billy was born in 1793 and Francis in 1797.” |
| 56. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, p. 125. |
| 57. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, p. 38. |
| 58. | A “Joseph Bell, of Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire … married Sarah, dau. of Peter and Elizabeth (Lee) Lake, of Shrewsbury. The family came over to New York, and in the fall of 1793 came with the Loyalists to Shelburne. A few years afterward they removed to Yarmouth, where Mr. Bell died 2d July, 1828, aged 89. Mrs. Bell died 9 This man cannot, however, have been the Joseph Bell who married Catharine Harris. First, he was still married to Sarah Lake 6½ years after Catharine Harris’s first child was born, and secondly, he himself was still alive throughout 1827, in which year Catharine is attested as a widow. If this is the right Bell family, he, with a birthdate of about 1738, was some thirty years older than Catharine Harris, and may perhaps have been her father-in-law, though we have found no evidence that he actually was. Finally, it should be noted that William Bell, son of Joseph Bell and Catharine Harris, reported his ethnicity as Irish in the 1881 census. |
| 59. | Public Archives of Nova Scotia, R.G. 1, vol. 446, fos. 72, 73, on Public Archives of Canada microfilm no. M-5219. |
| 60. | An anonymous typescript in the Harris file, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, MG 100, vol. 161, no. 54, reel 15201, credits them also with a son “Tom John (1807-1889),” but no evidence is offered, and his stated date of birth is in conflict with that of the known son William John in the same year. |
| 61. | Lovitt Wilson is mentioned, but with no issue traced, in Edwin Crowell, History of Barrington Township (Yarmouth, 1923), 596. |
| 62. | Calnek’s Annapolis, 2:121. |
| 63. | Wilson’s Digby, p. 60. |
| 64. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 24, 26. |
| 65. | Wilson’s Digby, 310-11; Calnek’s Annapolis, 1:521 ff. |
| 66. | Wilson’s Digby, 385-7. |
| 67. | Presumably John Morehouse, from Connecticut, mentioned in Sabine’s Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, 2:103, who died at Digby Neck in 1839, aged 78 years; his wife was a Mary Jones. “Descendants of John Morehouse are very numerous in and about Digby.” — Cornelius Starr Morehouse, Ancestry and descendants of Gershom Morehouse, Jr. of Redding, Connecticut, a captain in the American Revolution (s.l., 1894), p. 26. |
| 68. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 24-6. |
| 69. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 26. |
| 70. | See the index to the customers’ names in the account-book given in Bull’s Sandy Cove, 124-26, at p. 125. |
| 71. | Wilson’s Digby, 360. |
| 72. | Wilson’s Digby, p. 360, writes “of Sandy Cove,” which while probably true is not in the original record. |
| 73. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 26, citing Digby County Registry Office, Book 1B, p. 472. |
| 74. | Wilson’s Digby, 90-1. Towner is discussed in Allan M. Hill, Some Chapters in the History of Digby County… (Halifax, 1901), 101-3; also Dictionary of Canadian Biography, s.v. Roger Viets. |
| 75. | Digby County Deeds, Liber 10, no. 160; P.A.N.S. reel no. 17701, item 2. |
| 76. | Digby County deeds, Liber 5, nos. 534 & 535 respectively; P.A.N.S. reel 17699, item 2. |
| 77. | Will of Peter Harris, from a transcription kindly supplied by Ross McCurdy; punctuation added for clarity. |
| 78. | Will of Peter Harris, from a transcription kindly supplied by Ross McCurdy; puctuation added and capitalization normalized for clarity. |
| 79. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Digby Co., Westport, district 15, sub-district F, p. 16; PAC microfilm no. C-13172 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,808]. |
| 80. | 1871 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 191 (Digby County), subdistrict d (Sandy Cove), p. 29; PAC microfilm no. C-10544. The entry reads:
name age cond. birthplace religion origin occupation -------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas W. Crowell 69 married Nova Scotia Baptist English farmer Angleche Crowell 70 married Nova Scotia Baptist German |
| 81. | Digby County death registrations, book 1806, p. 94. |
| 82. | Information from Marion Angrignon. For Thomas West Crowell Sr. see Bull, Sandy Cove, p. 129. Thomas West Crowell, Sr., was a son of Thomas Crowell “Sr.,” a grantee at Barrington, and Martha Coleman; see Elizabeth Pearson White, “Nova Scotia Settlers from Chatham, Mass., 1759-1769,” National Genealogical Society Quartlerly 62 (1974): 96-117, at p. 100. He married (1) Sarah, daughter of Thomas Doane by his second wife Elizabeth Lewis, and “moved to Digby Neck,” according to Edwin Crowell, History of Barrington Township (Yarmouth, 1923), pp. 458, 477; White, “Nova Scotia Settlers from Chatham,” at pp. 101-102. He married (2) Elizabeth Trask, born 26 November 1775, daughter of Thomas Trask and Hannah Waterman, for whose identification see George S. Brown, Yarmouth Genealogies, pp. 413, 44. |
| 83. | Christian Messenger, 27 February 1852, per unpublished notes of Marion Angrignon. |
| 84. | 1871 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 191 (Digby County), subdistrict d (Sandy Cove), p. 29; PAC microfilm no. C-10544. The entry reads:
name age cond. occupation -------------------------------------- Wesley W. Crowell 46 married farmer Ruth H. Crowell 40 m. Emma S. Crowell 17 - William C. Crowell 15 - ===== Everyone in household born in Nova Scotia, Baptist in religion, English in origin |
| 85. | Bull, Sandy Cove, 173, n. 19. |
| 86. | Vital record not found. This date, and some of our other information, is taken from Jack Minard Sanford, President John Sanford of Boston, Massachusetts and Portsmouth, Rhode Island (East Aurora, New York: privately published, 1966), 174. |
| 87. | Bull, Sandy Cove, 135. |
| 88. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Digby Co., Sandy Cove, district 15, sub-district D, p. 19; PAC microfilm no. C-13172 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,808]. |
| 89. | Names of persons for whom marriage licenses were issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York, previous to 1784 (Albany, 1860), 171. |
| 90. | The career of this man has been so thoroughly covered by previous researchers that (albeit he is a direct ancestor of the present writer) we have as yet personally undertaken little investigation of him in primary sources, and so will not enter into the matter here in any detail. The most important of the works which have come to our notice are Arthur H. Radasch, Comfort Families of Orange County, New York (Upper Montclair, N.J., 1962; typescript at the National Library of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C.), p. 11 [Family History Library microfilm no. 858,851, item 8]; and Cecelia C. Botting & Roland B. Botting, Comfort Families of America: A Collection of Genealogical Data (Brookings, South Dakota: the authors, 1971), 328-31, 619-20, 621. Earlier references include R. Janet Powell, Annals of the Forty: Loyalist and Pioneer Families of West Lincoln, 1783-1833, 1st ed., 10 vols. (Grimsby, Ontario, 1952-59), 4 (1953): 25-7, 9 (1958): 90; and 2nd ed. (1965-68), 4 (1965): 29-32, and Roland & Cecelia Botting, A History of the Kennedy Family [1st ed.] (1957), Comfort appendix, pp. 17-22 (where however the Comfort and Harris families are confused). A query regarding this family appeared in “Families in Process of Research,” Genealogical Newsletter of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, no. 15 (April 1976), p. 1. |
| 91. | Calnek’s Annapolis, 2:117-27, at p. 119; Wilson’s Digby, 70-73, at p. 71. |
| 92. | Comfort Families of America, 619-20. |
| 93. | Wilson’s Digby, p. 360. |
| 94. | Calnek’s Annapolis, 2:125. |
| 95. | Identification of Ruth (Raymond) Saunders courtesy of Jordan Peeples. For the Saunders family see Bull’s Sandy Cove, 26-27, 139-40 (for her transcription of tombstones in Sandy Cove Baptist Cemetery); also M. Mackay, William Saunders, available online at http://www.magma.ca/~mmackay/wc01/wc01_329.html. William (“Billy”) Saunders was, with the Francis Harris into whose family two of his children seem to have married, one of the original grantees of Sandy Cove in 1788 (Bull’s Sandy Cove, p. 127), and is recorded as a customer at Stephen Fountain’s store in 1788-1794, as are his sons John (in 1793-1814) and Lemuel (in 1799-1814). William Saunders and his wife Ruth (____) do not appear to have any surviving tombstones, and their dates cannot be stated with any precision. Although most of the Saunders family of Sandy Cove were their descendants, a separate and smaller Saunders family was later founded there by William Saunders (1799-1871+), from Yarmouth, and his wife Hannah Cornwell (ca. 1802-1881+); see Brown’s Yarmouth Genealogies, p. 151. Their known or probable children were:
|
| 96. | Wilson, Digby, p. 360, writes “of Sandy Cove,” but while probably true is not in the original record. |
| 97. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 26, citing Digby County Registry Office, Book 1B, p. 472. |
| 98. | See the index to the account-book in Bull’s Sandy Cove, 124-6, at p. 125. |
| 99. | Wilson’s Digby, 389-92, at p. 390. |
| 100. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 38. |
| 101. | Bull’s Sandy Cove, 27. |
| 102. | Wilson’s Digby, 234. |
| 103. | The record refers to the groom as “Ephraim Harris Jr.,” an error which has caused much confusion but is fortunately corrected by Calnek (see below in the text) and other evidence. As pointed out to me by Ross W. McCurdy, the error is further compounded in a modern transcript of the church register, P.A.N.S. MG-4, vol. 23, item 3, reel 15032, in which the name of the groom is given as “Ephraim Haines Jr.,” a mistake which shows up in the IGI. Some writers have attempted to accomodate this reading and insisted that Rachel McDormand had two husbands, Francis Harris and Ephraim Haines, but this is chronologically impossible. |
| 104. | Calnek’s Annapolis, 1:547 (McDormand), 568-75 (Rice); Wilson’s Digby, 320-21 (McDormand); Esther Clark Wright, Planters and Pioneers: Nova Scotia, 1749 to 1775 (Wolfville, N.S., 1978) (for Rice); and especially, Ross W. McCurdy, Descendants of James & Anna (Rice) McDormand, of Brier Island, Nova Scotia (South Yarmouth, Massachusetts: the author, 2013), p. 8. |
| 105. | 1842 Census of Upper Canada, Bayhamp Tp., PAC microfilm no. C-1345. The entries in the Bayham census are so hopelessly out of alignment that any attempt to piece together the more detailed statistical data on family composition from the various columns would appear to be of dubious value. |
| 106. | As noted, with particular mention of this family, in a letter to the editor by Ross W. McCurdy printed in New England Ancestors, vol. 8, no. 3 (Summer 2007), p. 9. |
| 107. | Calnek’s Annapolis, 1:547, a passage kindly brought to our attention by Ross W. McCurdy. |
| 108. | We have however failed to eliminate directly the Francis Harris, farmer, Methodist, found in the 1827 census of Clements Tp. (immediately adjacent to Digby), with a household consisting of 1 male and 2 females (FHL microfilm no. 6,046,789). |
| 109. | The correctness of this statement is supported by an earlier entry in the register for “Abraham, black child, son of Francis Harris, baptized 22 June 1797 at Mink Cove. |
| 110. | Digby County deeds, Liber 5, nos. 534 & 535 respectively; P.A.N.S. reel 17699, item 2. |
| 111. | Bayham Township Wills, Liber A, fo. 3; punctuation added for clarity. We are indebted to Ross W. McCurdy for a copy of this will. |
| 112. | Garry Burt, Shelburne County Cemteries, CD-ROM series, vol. 1. |
| 113. | The name appears in a variety of spellings, including Hemion and Hemeion, but the most prevalent was Hemeon. Philip Hemion died 6 April 1837, aged 70 years, and his wife Mary Ann, who died 7 October 1857, aged 82 years, are buried in Christ Church Cemetery, Shelburne. His will, not seen by us, was proved at Shelburne on 24 Nov 1837. He was a son of Adam Hemeon, died 25 August 1825 aged 84 years, and the latter’s wife Sophia, died 1 January 1793 aged 45 years, who are also buried in Christ Church Cemetery, the connection being established by the extensive Hemeon memoir in Brown’s Yarmouth Genealogies, 729-37. |
| 114. | P.A.N.S., R.G. 1, vol. 446, fos. 72, 73; Public Archives of Canada microfilm no. M-5219. |
| 115. | NYGBR 84:220. |
| 116. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, District 13 (Shelburne Co.), subdistrict C (Shelburne), p. 20; PAC microfilm no. C-13171 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,807]. The entry reads, in part:
name status gender ethn. age birthplace occupation religion --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Quinlan M Male Irish 54 Nova Scotia lumberman Can. Methodist Almira Quinlan M Female Irish 53 Nova Scotia ---- Can. Methodist Jane Quinlan Female Irish 22 Nova Scotia school teacher C. of England Arthur Quinlan Male Irish 19 Nova Scotia farmer's son C. of England John T. Quinlan Male Irish 15 Nova Scotia farmer's son C. of England |
| 117. | Garry Burt, Shelburne County Cemteries, CD-ROM series, vol. 1. |
| 118. | Shelburne County marriage registrations, Book 1836, p. 207. |
| 119. | The date is from the 1901 census, the place from the record of his second marriage. |
| 120. | Shelburne County death registrations, book 1950, p. 2157. This record is filled in incorrectly, giving, where the mother should have been named, the the particulars are the deceased’s second wife. |
| 121. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 13 (Shelburne), subdistrict E (Jordan River), p. 8; PAC microfilm no. C-13171 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,807]. The entry reads:
James Thorborn M Male Scottish 57 N.S. farmer Dorcas Thorborn M Female Scottish 55 N.S. ---- Albert Thorborn Male Scottish 19 N.S. fisherman Fr...man Thorborn Male Scottish 17 N.S. farmer ==== Entire family is Baptist Given his evident birthdate of 1823-24, James Thorburn, who according to his son’s death record was born in Nova Scotia, is probably identical with the James Thorbourne, born 25 October 1823, baptized 19 April 1827 in Christ Church, Shelburne (per IGI), son of John and Martha (____) Thorbourne. |
| 122. | McAlpine’s Nova Scotia Directory for 1896 (Halifax: McAlpine’s Publishing Company, 1896), p. 1486. |
| 123. | 1901 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 40 (Shelburne & Queens), subdistrict C (Sandy Point), division 6, p. 10. The entry reads:
Albert Thorbourne head W 40 31 August 1861 capton [sic] Naomi Thorbourne ....* S 8 13 January 1893 Bertram Thorbourne son S 6 10 [?] August 1894 Ethel Griffith housekpr M 34 4 February 1867 Al... Griffith " son M [!] 9 19 October 1892 ==== Entire household of English origin, Canadian ethnicity, Baptist religion * illegible |
| 124. | Lunenburg County marriage registrations, book 1830, p. 33. |
| 125. | 1911 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Shelburne & Queens, subdistrict 19 (Sandy Point), p. 10. The entry reads:
Thorburn Albert M head M August 1861 50 Thorburn Mary C. F wife M Jan. 1879 32 Thorburn Naomi E. F dau. S Jan. 1893 18 Thorburn Bertram M son S August 1894 16 Thorburn Gerald E.B. M son S April 1907 4 Thorburn Murry W. M son S December 1908 2 Thorburn Walter A. M son S September 1910 2/12 |
| 126. | Lunenburg County marriage registrations, Book 1829, p. 92. |
| 127. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Queens County, Liverpool, Local District No. 2, District 12, Sub-district B, p. 44; Library and Archives Canada microfilm no. C-13170, Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,806. The entry reads:
name cond. gender ethn. age b.p. occupation religion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- James C. HEMEON M German 50 Nova Scotia Farmer & Trader C. Methodist Mary HEMEON M F English 45 Nova Scotia Baptist Winslow HEMEON M German 21 Nova Scotia Farmer C. Methodist Emma HEMEON F German 15 Nova Scotia C. Methodist Frederick HEMEON M German 12 Nova Scotia C. Methodist Helen L. HEMEON F German 9 Nova Scotia C. Methodist Eva A. HEMEON F German 6 Nova Scotia C. Methodist Anna LUTZ F German 20 Nova Scotia Servant Church of England |
| 128. | Death notice, Liverpool Advance, 12 October 1887, from a transcript in the Thomas Brenton Smith collection, PANS, MG 1 v. 838. |
| 129. | Kings County death registrations, Book 92, p. 370. |
| 130. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Cumberland Co., Mills, District 22, Sub-district M, Division 2, p. 1; Library and Archives Canada microfilm no. C-13177, Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,813. The entry reads:
name cond. gender ethn. age b.p. occupation religion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph B. HEMEON M M German 41 Nova Scotia Clergyman Methodist Ellen D. HEMEON M F English 36 Nova Scotia Methodist Morley D. HEMEON M German 13 New Brunswick Methodist Douglas B. HEMEON M German 11 New Brunswick Methodist James M. HEMEON M German 8 New Brunswick Methodist Joseph C. HEMEON M German 2 Nova Scotia Methodist |
| 131. | George Henry Cornish, Cyclopædia of Methodism in Canada, vol. 1 (1881), 387, 752; D. Johnson, History of Methodism in Eastern British America (n.d.), 439, credits him with 30 years of service. |
| 132. | D. Johnson, History of Methodism in Eastern British America (n.d.), 422. |
| 133. | Manifest of The Bermudian 10 June 1912, at http://www.ellisisland.org/. |
| 134. | Although the 1881 census gives his ages as 38 and the A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758-1958 (below) says he was born in 1843, this conflicts with the birth of his sister Emily, with whom he was probably not a twin (as he was not baptized with her). |
| 135. | See A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758-1958 (Halifax: Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1958), 157. |
| 136. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Queens County, Liverpool, Local District No. 2, District 12, Sub-district B, p. 15; Library and Archives Canada microfilm no. C-13170, Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,806. The entry reads:
name cond. gender ethn. age b.p. occupation religion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Albert M. HEMEON M M German 38 Nova Scotia Justice of the Peace C. of E. Latitia HEMEON M F English 40 Nova Scotia Baptist Edward HEMEON M German 15 Nova Scotia Clerk Baptist George HEMEON M German 13 Nova Scotia Clerk Baptist Carrie HEMEON F German 11 Nova Scotia Baptist Nettie HIMEON F German 9 Nova Scotia Baptist Annie HEMEON F German 7 Nova Scotia Baptist Lavinia CLATTENBURG F German 18 Nova Scotia Servant Church of England |
| 137. | Shelburne County death registrations, Book 17, p. 86. |
| 138. | Garry Burt, Shelburne County Cemteries, CD-ROM series, vol. 1. |
| 139. | Shelburne County marriage registrations, book 1836, p. 32. |
| 140. | Shelburne County death registrations, Book 17, p. 73. |
| 141. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 13 (Shelburne County), subdistrict E (Jordan River), p. 10; PAC microfilm no. C-13171 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,807.] The entry reads:
Joseph Martin M Male Scottish 47 N.S. C. Presbyterian farmer Emily Martin M Female German 37 N.S. C. Methodist ---- Oscar Martin Male Scottish 9 N.S. C. Methodist student Kate Martin Female Scottish 9 N.S. C. Methodist student |
| 142. | Shelburne County birth registrations, book 1821, p. 103. |
| 143. | Shelburne County death registrations, 1955, no. 003423, and tombstone. |
| 144. | Shelburne County birth registrations, book 1821, p. 103. |
| 145. | Garry Burt, Shelburne County Cemteries, CD-ROM series, vol. 1. |
| 146. | Crowell’s Barrington, p. 596. The fact that Jane’s maiden surname was Wilson is stated in the 1934 death record of her daughter Lucretia. |
| 147. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Shelburne Co., Shelburne, district 13, Sub-district C, p. 30; PAC microfilm no. C-13171 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,807]. The entry reads:
William J. Bell M Male Irish 74 N.S. C. of E. ship wright Jane Bell M Female English 74 N.S. C. of E. Lucretia Bell M Female English 23 N.S. C. of E. Jessie Bell Female English 23 N.S. C. Meth. servant Almira Bell Female Irish 77 N.S. C. of E. |
| 148. | Crowell’s Barrington, p. 596, gives a very poor account of the children in this family, showing only George and Lucretia, to the latter of whom is assigned two husbands, Capt. Edward Murphy and Thomas Ryer. Murphy was in fact the husband of Lucretia’s elder sister, Catharine Bell. |
| 149. | Information on this man was requested by Michael Christie in, “Dr. George Wilson Bell,” query dated 20 January 2004, available online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nsannapo/queries8.html. |
| 150. | Halifax County death registations, 1926, no. 1344. |
| 151. | Larry Wert, Descendants of John & William Woodbury of Beverly, MA, available online at http://www.woodburyober.com/; Jack Manning, Nova Scotia Roots, available online at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=jmann49. |
| 152. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 16 (Annapolis Co.), subdistrict F (New Caledonia), p. 56; PAC microfilm no. C-13172 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,808. The entry reads:
George W. Bell M Male English 38 Nova Scotia Church of England Physician & Surgeon Maria W. " M Female English 36 Nova Scotia Methodist Canada ---- |
| 153. | 1901 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 36 (Kings County), subdistrict Q (Kingston), division 1, p. 1. The entry reads:
George W. Bell head 4 December 1842 58 N.S. English C. of E. doctor Maria W. " wife 10 December 1844 56 N.S. " Meth. |
| 154. | Shelburne County marriage registrations, Book 1836, p. 26. In the copy available to us, we cannot make out the exact date of the marriage. |
| 155. | 1881 Census of canada, Nova Scotia, District 13 (Shelburne Co.), Subdistrict C (Town of Shelburne), p. 41; PAC microfilmn no. C-13171 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,807]. The entry reads, in part:
name cond. gender age relgion occupation --------------------------------------------------------------- Edward Murphy M M 55 Church of England Master Mariner Kate Murphy M F 36 Church of England Maud Murphy F 8 Church of England Student Jane Murphy F 7 Church of England Student Mary Murphy F 6 Church of England Student Isabella Murphy F 3 Church of England William Murphy M 6/12* Church of England Sarah Murphy F 48 Baptist ---- Entire household (including Kate) shown as Irish in origin; all born in Nova Scotia * born in October |
| 156. | Shelburne County birth registrations, Book 1821, p. 102. |
| 157. | Shelburne, Shelburne County death registrations, Book 191, p. 666. |
| 158. | Shelburne County birth registrations, Book 1821, p. 302. |
| 159. | Shelburne County birth registrations, Book 1821, p. 152. |
| 160. | Shelburne County marriage registrations, Book 1836, p. 263. |
| 161. | Shelburne County death registrations, Book 154, p. 252. |
| 162. | Kings County marriage registrations, Book 1827, p. 52. |
| 163. | Shelburne County death registrations, Book 17, p. 94. |
| 164. | His age is inconsistently given as 79 in the 1871 census, 90 in the 1881 census, and 95 tombstone. We have taken the last as being the leas implausible. |
| 165. | Digby County probates, no. A-1093. |
| 166. | Silas Balcom and his daughter Abigail are mentioned in Calnek’s Annapolis, 1:470, where the name of his wife’s is given only as “Susan ____.” According to an undocumented entry in Ancestry.com’s Family Data Collection, Abigail was born in 1763, and her mother was Susan Rachel Smith.
Despite the apparent plausibility of this connection, we must note that there was also a James Carty of Digby who was of the right age to have been father of the Silas of our text, for he is named in the death record of a son, John Carty, who was born about 1783-84 at Digby, and died 29 October 1869 at Hillsburgh, aged 85 years. |
| 167. | “Names and Places of Residence of all Militiamen of 1812 who received their pension during the last fiscal year [1882-84], and the amount paid to each of them,” in Sessional Papers/Parliamentary Papers: Pensions to Militiamen of the War of 1812 Paid in 1884, from Government of Canada Sessional Papers 48 Victoria 1885 (81), available online at http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/Sessional/pensions1812.html. |
| 168. | In earlier versions of these notes, we erroneously reported her name as Rachael Dunn. However, Rachel (Dunn) McCarty was still alive in 1911, when she is mentioned in the death notice of a sister: “The death of Susan Dunn Gilliatt, widow of the late Edmund R. Gilliatt, occured very suddenly at the home of her son, C.H. Gilliatt, Wellfleet, Mass. on Tuesday April the 18th [1911]. Mrs. Gilliatt was the daughter of William and Mary Miller Dunn of Bear River and was 81 years of age. She leaves to mourn … one brother Edward Dunn of Landsdowne and one sister Mrs. Rachel Carty of Digby.” (Death notice, Digby Courier, available online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nsdigby/obituaries/query006.htm#153). In fact, Rachel Dunn, married in 1853 at Hillsborough, William Carty, carpenter, a fact mentioned in the birth record of their son Charles H. Carty, born 6 September 1864 at Sandy Cove. |
| 169. | Death notice, Digby Weekly Courier, 20 March 1891, p. 2, col. 4, which, under the heading “Sandy Cove,” notes only that “Mrs. Rachel Carty, relict of the late Silas Carty, died last week at the age of eighty-seven years.” |
| 170. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Digby Tp., Sandy Cove, district 15, sub-district D, p. 20; PAC microfilm no. C-13172 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,808]. |
| 171. | Lois Kernaghan Papers, P.A.N.S., MS 1, vol. 2591, file no. 18; reel 579. |
| 172. | Digby County Deeds, Liber 10, no. 160; P.A.N.S. reel no. 17701, item 2. |
| 173. | Brown, Yarmouth Genealogies, 44, 414 (for Trask, accepting a reader-submitted correction of a previous sketch of the same family on p. 10, which had given the husband of Ruhamah Trask as “____ Crowell”); 621 (for Baker). We are indebted for several additional details here to Elaine Deion, Raymond Roots, formerly available online at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/6137/. |
| 174. | Digby County Census, 1871, [Family History Library microfilm no. 493,602], p. 30, transcribed by Theresa Mangnall, available online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nsdigby/census/1871/1871sandycove2.htm |
| 175. | Nova Scotia Directory for 1871, p. 220. |
| 176. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Digby Co., Sandy Cove, District 15, Subdistrict D, p. 19 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,808]. |
| 177. | Digby County Probates, A-1165, P.A.N.S. reel no. 20470. |
| 178. | Death notice, The Daily Telegraph (Saint John, New Brunswick), kindly brought to my attention by Marion Agrignon, as well as Dwayne Sabine. |
| 179. | The suggestion that Abigail’s maiden surname was Campbell comes from Marion Angrignon. |
| 180. | A Petition regarding the Petite Passage Ferryman, November 1875, transcribed by Ken Eavis, available online at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nsdigby/lists/petit.htm. |
| 181. | Will of Charles Harris, of Digby Neck, Digby County Probates no. A-786, P.A.N.S. microfilm no. 20465; document cut off in several places on the microfilm. Punctuation has been added for the sake of clarity. |
| 182. | 1871 Census of Sandy Cove, p. 27. The entry reads:
Harris John M 60 mar. NS Baptist German farmer " Ann F 60 mar. Ireland Catholic Irish Merritt James M 42 mar. NS Baptist English seaman " Sarah P. F 35 mar. NS Baptist German " Caroline F 8 ---- NS Baptist English in school " Hellan F 6 ---- NS Baptist English in school " John M 4 ---- NS Baptist English " Charles W. M 1 ---- NS Baptist English |
| 183. | 1881 Census of Canada, Nova Scotia, Digby Co., Sandy Cove, district 15, sub-district D, p. 18; PAC microfilm no. C-13172 [Family History Library microfilm no. 1,375,808]. |
| 184. | Francis’ baptismal record is printed in Early Settlers of New York State, vol. 3, no. 5 (Nov. 1936), p. 6, repr. Jane Wethy Foley (ed.), Early Settlers of New York State: Their Ancestors and Descendants, 9 vols. in 2 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993), 1:401. |
| 185. | See Roland & Cecelia Botting, A History of the Kennedy Family [1st ed.] (1957), 18-20, and especially Cecelia C. and Roland B. Botting, Comfort Families of America, 344-58. |
| 186. | Cecelia and Roland Botting, Wilcoxes and McIntyres of Lincoln County [Ontario] (Tucson, Arizona: the authors, 197_), p. 13. |
| 187. | The Bottings printed this letter in Copper State Bulletin (Arizona State Genealogical Society), vol. 9, no. 3 (19—), pp. 75-6. |
| 188. | See generally Roland & Cecelia Botting, A History of the Kennedy Family [1st ed.] (Hutchinson, Kansas: privately published, 1957), pp. 8-11; Cecelia C. and Roland B. Botting, Comfort Families of America, p. 347; Descendants of John Kennedy of Sussex County, New Jersey [3rd ed.] (n.p., 1989), pp. 14-15. |
Some Sites of Related Interest
- Harris in Annapolis and Digby Counties, Nova Scotia by Sandy Wilbur
<http://www.condortales.com/Resources/harrisannap%201.html> - The Times of Isaiah W. Wilson: Sandy Cove
<http://www.westerncounties.ca/isaiah/sandycove.html> - Digby Neck in Stories (part of Canada’s Digital Collections program)
<http://collections.ic.gc.ca/digby_neck/>
From the Genealogy Page of John Blythe Dobson
URL = johnblythedobson.org/genealogy/ff/Harris-Joseph.cfm
This page written 17 March 2000
Last revised 28 July 2018