Nova Scotia # 10 on 14 Feb 1862 cover from Halifax to Wallace, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. Addressed to William Scott, Esquire, Wallace. Two backstamps Halifax, FE 14 1862, Wallace, FE 15 1862.
Nova Scotia # 10 om 30 Sep 1865 cover from Halifax to Wallace, Nova Scotia. Addressed to William Scott, Esq, Wallace. Backstamps: Halifax 30 SP 65, Wallace OC 3 1865. Manuscript notation on front "Halifax Sept 30th 1865. William Stairs Son + Morrow Ltd. Oct 3rd, acknowledgement for $40"
William Scott, merchant, was 43 years old when he received the 1862 letter from Halifax. The 1873 Wallace Business Directory describes him as W. Scott, J.P. “Dealer in Dry Gds. Hardware, Groceries, Earthenware, Ready made Clothing, Boots and Shoes, Patent Medicines and Flour”. His brother and neighbor, Richard J. Scott, was a shipbuilder in Wallace.
William was born November 17th, 1818, in Halifax and died May 9th,1890 (aged 71) in Wallace, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. He is buried in Knox Cemetery, Wallace, with his wife, Catherine J.
William was the son of Richard Scott, born 1782 in Scotland, died August 21st, 1867 (aged 84), in Wallace, and Catherine Hogg Scott, born April 6th, 1795, in Halifax, died October 20th, 1860 (aged 65), in Wallace.
On A. F. Church's map, two houses labeled "W. Scott" and a store were on the shore side of the road west of the center of Wallace proper toward Wallace Bridge immediately across from postal Way Officer, William McCann's residence. This was the local distribution point for any letters sent to William Scott. Before the Short Line railway was built, mail from Halifax was brought to Great Village, Londonderry or Folleigh (Folly Mountain) and then over the mountain by horse and carriage. The mail driver on this route in 1862 was Joseph Dutton. He drove to Londonderry one day and back the following day. On the third day he delivered mail to the Post Offices at Wallace and Pugwash and to the Way Offices at Fox Harbour, Gulf Shore, and Head of Wallace Bay. We know that in 1869, Joseph was paid 298.00 pounds per year. For this he had to maintain a carriage and sleigh, provide at least two horses and pay for lodging in Londonderry two nights a week.
William Scott appears in the 1861 census of Cumberland County as the head of a household of 2 males and 1 female.
Thomas Hutchinson's 1864-65 Nova Scotia Directory lists Scott, William, Merchant, Wallace next to Scott, Richard J., ship builder. Richard Scott was owner of the schooner Dove, built 1850, the schooner Caroline, built 1851, the brigantine Robert Henry, built 1852, and the brigantine Noel, built 1854. Canada, Seafarers of the Atlantic Provinces, 1789-1935 [database on-line].
.
Hutchinson’s Nova Scotia Directory, 1866-1867 for Wallace lists Scott, Richard, sen., gentleman, next to Scott, Richard, master mariner.
McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory, 1868-9 has Richard Scott, sea captain, in Wallace next to
William Scott, merchant.
The 1871 census for Wallace we find several households of Scotts living next to each other. Archibald Scott, 54, single farmer. Then the widow, Jane Scott, age 71, born in England, living with Jane Scott, 58, and Richard J Scott, 52, both single and born in Nova Scotia. Next there is George Scott, 38, farmer and his wife, Eliza, 28, married in May of 1871. Then James Scott, 43, farmer, with his wife, Jane S., 32, and their three daughters, Annie, 10, Emma Jane, 6, and Mary, 2. Finally there is the household of William Scott, 52, born in Nova Scotia, Presbyterian, merchant, with his wife Catherine J, 50, and son Charles A Scott, 27, clerk.
The 1881 census for Wallace has William Scoot, 61, merchant, Canada Presbyterian Church, with his wife, Catherine, 59, and son Charles A Scott, 36, store clerk, next to Scoot, Richard, 68, ship captain. One can't help wondering whether the census taker was having a bit of fun with the family's Scottish brogue by recording their name as "Scoot" instead of "Scott".
William Stairs, Son & Morrow, Ltd.
William Stairs first established a hardware store in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1810. The business was renamed Wm. Stairs and Son in 1841 when his elder son (W.J.) came into the business; his son John joined the company in 1844. In 1854, when William's son-in-law Robert Morrow became a partner, the business became known as Wm. Stairs, Son and Morrow. By 1865 William Stairs had died, W.J. Stairs had taken over his role, and the business had expanded into shipping. The Dartmouth Rope Works was established as a branch plant in 1869.
William Machin Stairs (1789-1865) and his descendants were prominent in the mercantile, banking, and political life of Halifax, N.S. William, founder of the hardware firm Wm. Stairs Son and Morrow and co-founder of the Union Bank, married Margaret Wiseman (b. 1793) in 1814. They had nine children: Catherine Mary (b. 1816); Joanna Stayner (1818-1845); William James (W.J.) (1819-1906), m. Susan Morrow (1822-1906) and had thirteen children; John George (b. 1821); John (1823-1888); Margaret Wiseman (1825-1875) m. Alfred Gilpin Jones; Helen Sophia (1827-1894) m. Robert Morrow (1827-1885); Frances Mary (1830-1831) and Anna Marshall (1832-1866) m. John Duffus. W.J. Stairs succeeded his father William as president of Wm. Stairs, Son and Morrow and president of Union Bank after William's death in 1865. He also served as alderman on the Halifax City Council and was briefly a member of the Legislative Council. Stairs Family Fonds, Nova Scotia Archives
History of Wallace
That there was a small settlement of Acadians at Wallace, then called Remsheg, is testified to by the dykes they constructed to hold back the sea and make the marshland useful for grazing. Remsheg has the unhappy distinction of being the first Acadian community to experience deportation by the British.
"During the first week of August, 1755, a Battalion of British and New England Irregulars left Fort Cumberland, near present day Amherst, under orders to follow the Cumberland Road for about 150 km to Cobiquid, now present day Truro. From there they were to carry on northward 70 kilometres to the small Village of Tatamagouche on the Northumberland Strait. The march took about 10 days. They were led by a New England Officer named Lt. Obijiah Willard and were under sealed orders from Lieutenant Colonel Robert Monckton and Nova Scotia Governor Charles Lawrence. After gaining supplies at a French Village near Cobiquid, they marched on towards Tatamagouche. A few kilometres from Tatamagouche they stopped to read their sealed orders.
The orders shocked Willard. He was told to continue on to the Village of Tatamagouche where he was to capture all the French inhabitants and burn the homes of all settlers along the Northumberland shore. This was the first act of the Deportation of the Acadian people from Nova Scotia. Willard sent 40 soldiers to the small village of Remsheg, 15 kilometres away to begin carrying out his orders. The date was August 15, 1755."
"Local author, Francis Grant, wrote that the male French settlers were marched to Tatamagouche and loaded on ships for expulsion to the American seaboard on August 15, 1755. A diary by the commanding officer at the time, Captain Abijiah Willard, tells of him giving the choice to the Acadian men to say if the women and children should stay in Tatamagouche or be brought with them. The captives voted for the women to stay. One of Francis Grant’s stories suggests the female Acadians, left behind by the British, were rescued by French settlers from Isle St. Jean (Prince Edward Island), who came to the area to care for the women and children left behind."
After the Revolutionary War, the area was opened for the settlement of Loyalists. Many of William Scott's neighbors were descendants of those Loyalists, from Westchester, New York. There were 109 lots of 200 acres each in the Remsheg Grant. Loyalist settlers were also given one of 239 three acre building lots in the surveyed township of Fanningboro, part of the Remsheg Grant. https://www.wallacemuseum.ca/history/
Comentários