samuel_holt_lot.pdf |
Samuel Holt purchased a 100-acre homestead south of Thomas Holt's from the DesBarres estate in 1865 and almost immediately divided it in two portions, east and west. He sold the eastern half, bordering on the Samuel McCully grant, to Alexander Lewis. The eastern half became the property of James McLaurin who had married Alexander Lewis's daughter Becky. The eastern half was later sold to Osborne Ripley. The western half later passed to Rufus Smith and then to Oman Lewis. Oman's wife sold the property to her brother William Henry Ripley who sold it to Jo Ed Ripley. The property was later acquired by the Higgs family.
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The Thomas Holt homestead was another of the lots bounded on the east by the 1816 Samuel McCully Grant at the Gmelin Line. The lot lay south of the "twin" Bulmer and Squire Pipes lots and north of a lot owned by Samuel Holt. The relationship between Thomas and Samuel Holt is unknown. Thomas Holt died about 1871 and his widow Charlotte continued to live on the property. On the 1871 census widow Charlotte Holt was living on the property with her five daughters. The 1891 census lists Charlotte, daughters Augusta and Emily, and "Domestic" William Dale. By 1911, the 90 year-old-Charlotte was living in a household headed by William Dale, having sold the property to Dale in 1907.
The Stiles Homestead was another of the many homesteads located on the original homestead of Michael Keiver. The Stiles homestead was located south of the Gordon Bacon homestead on Nappan Road (#31 above), at the end of Lower Porter Road on the east side of the road (#29). George Allan Stiles first purchased a 35-acre portion of a lot allocated to Robert Pugsley and an adjacent 16 1/2-acre parcel allocated to Abba Mary Keiver. Allan Stiles passed the property to his son Allison, who acquired an additional 50 acres originally allocated to Abba Mary and Francis Keiver. After the death of his wife, Allison deeded the property and others to his son-in-law Albert Davis. The property was briefly owned by Harry Bacon and the Nova Scotia Land Settlement Board before it was acquired by Kenneth Smith.
While looking for Acadian genealogies on Family Search the other day, I stumbled upon the Harrison Family Papers which have been digitized and put online. Anyone remotely related to the Harrison Family will probably find something of interest there. The collection begins with a transcription of the Maccan, Nappan and Elysian Fields Township Records. The next section is a Harrison family genealogy compiled by William Harrison in the 1930's. Harrison also included genealogies and notes on families related to the Harrisons by marriage including Mills, Lewis, Lumley, Bent, Bacon, Black, Crane, Lovell, Allison, and Prescott. A third section contains a large number of original letters including the "famous" correspondence of Luke Harrison with his cousin and the letter from James Metcalf to his fiancee. Happy searching!
www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3SL-K76C-R?cat=174954 It turns out that my understanding of the events surrounding Henry Ripley's homestead purchase was just dead wrong. I had assumed that DesBarres's tenants wanted to purchase their properties and that DesBarres had resisted selling when it was just the opposite.
DesBarres's agent Mary Cannon had granted the tenants 990 year leases at a very favourable rate. The tenants very much wanted to maintain their leases and had banded together to share costs in defending them. DesBarres sued Henry Ripley in 1816 to break his lease but Henry prevailed in court. The court case affirmed the tenants' leases and their ability to sell their leases to others. This rendered the property virtually worthless to the landlord who was unable to eject the tenant or raise the rent. It's as if you had rented your first apartment and obtained a lease for $100 for 999 years. As the rents went up to $1000, $2000, you could sell your lease to someone else but the landlord could not raise your rent, eject you, or prohibit you from selling your lease. It seems that Henry Ripley, who had been targeted by DesBarres with a lawsuit, emerged as the ringleader when the tenants made common cause. However, DesBarres agent James S. Morse claims to have exerted his personal influence with Henry and persuaded him to make an offer to purchase his homestead. This must be taken with a grain of salt as Morse made this claim in the context of a lawsuit defending a huge bill he had sent to the DesBarres estate for his services. However, it does raise an interesting question. Were the tenants wise to purchase their properties or should they have tried to hold onto their leases? I've updated the DesBarres vs Tenants page of my website. The lot that became the homestead of Jacob Porter and later Sylvester Porter in Nappan was located on the original homestead of Michael Keiver. On the William Keiver estate map it's the Pugsley lot south of Nappan Road and the "Moore" lot covered in my previous post. Michael Keiver had purchased 100-acre lots 15, 16, 17 and Edward Noiles Senior had purchased the adjacent Lot 14. It's unusual to find boundary descriptions so precise. The measurements in the 1909 deed may prove useful for determining the original layout of the 100-acre lots.
The "Moore" Lot was located north of Nappan Road in the northeast corner of Michael Keiver's original homestead. Since Michael Keiver owned 100-acre lots 15, 16, and 17, the lot was likely on Lot 15. Lot 14 adjoined on the east. Through the years, the property has been owned by Michael Keiver, William Keiver, Robert Pugsley, George Cruikshank, schoolmaster, Jacob Purdy, Jacob Corbet, George B. Moir, Robert R. Coates, Walton Isaac Bacon and his wife Blanche, and Harry W. Bacon. The northern half of the neighbouring dower lot of Nancy Keiver also became part of the homesteads of Walton Bacon and Harry Bacon. The schoolhouse was located on the Nancy Keiver lot, so it's interesting that George Cruikshank, teacher, lived on the adjacent "Moore" lot.
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AuthorHi there! My name is Mallory Burton and I started researching the Ripley family in 2011. I'd describe myself as a careful amateur who's more interested in story than names and dates. I hope you enjoy my website and blog. I also have a public Mallory/Ripley tree on Ancestry with over 4,000 names. To contact me, please comment on any one of my blog posts. Archives
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