Liverpool Packet

We established in an earlier (and less flattering) story that the Allisons who came from Londonderry were relatively well off for tenant farmers. How they accumulated wealth in the colony of Nova Scotia is fairly well documented in their purchase of lands. Additional research, however, has uncovered that our ancestors were also pirates of the legal sort: privateers.

The Colony at Nova Scotia had steadily been growing through the 18^th century. At the same time, wars had continued to rage between the major world powers and in the colonies. During the American War of Independence, ships carrying people and goods to and from the British Colonies were subject to attack by privateers. Privateers are pirates who are legally permitted to raid and capture enemy ships to support the war effort. What they took they could sell for their own enrichment. Privateers outfitted their merchant vessels with armaments and soldiers, and if they could overtake an enemy’s merchant vessel, they could easily outgun and out-soldier them. Some privateers couldn’t let go of their lifestyle at the conclusion of wars, and turned to piracy: which is essentially the same activity but without the “letters of marque” that made their privateer endeavours legal.

Enos Collins

Privateers often turned their stolen wealth into investment income to support their own entrepreneurship. Indeed, one of the most famous and successful privateers made their wealth primarily in the War of 1812 and lived in Nova Scotia: Enos Collins (1774-1871). Collins became so wealthy that he, and some others, founded the Halifax Banking Company in which he could safely store his riches (one of his earliest business partners in the banking industry was Joseph Allison – our first ancestor in the colonies). This company is still around today, though known under its current name as the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Collins had partners in his work, among whom were the Allisons, and particularly John Allison (1753-1821).

John Allison had shares in Enos Collins’ most successful privateering schooner, the Liverpool Packet. Liverpool Packet was purchased by Enos Collins at auction in 1811 (having been captured by the British due to the fact that it was illegally engaged in the by then outlawed slave trade). This schooner captured 50 American vessels during the War of 1812, and the resulting riches made its owners relatively wealthy in the growing colony.

Halifax was a critical town for the British, who used it to assert control over the colonies, settle Loyalists from the American War of Independence, act as a naval station and army garrison, and be a “Warden of the Honour of the North” (Rudyard Kipling). Halifax was more British than the British, conserving those traditions as a matter of honour and duty. While the population of the town didn’t expand above 15,000 through the first half of the 19^th century, its role as keeper of British tradition, and as a port of extraordinary military and economic importance meant that Halifax had plenty of opportunities for early entrepreneurs like John Allison.

Imagine the many traders, privateers, soldiers and the like who would come to Halifax. A decent farmer with good transportation to the town would be able to easily sell their goods to the visitors and inhabitants of Halifax. John Allison, his father Joseph (the first Allison emigrant of our ancestry), and William, his brother, were given plots of land as settlers. We can find evidence of the accumulation, sale and purchase of other lands. In 1804, John moved to Newport, Hants as both a trader and “one of the most successful farmers in Nova Scotia” (Bell).

John used his money to purchase more valuable land and engage in trade. A farmer who also bought shares in privateer vessels would be able to re-invest their bounty in more land and goods and increase their wealth in the colony. If you had decent business sense and some good fortune, you could do quite well. As apparently did John, “…by great perseverance, industry, frugality, and integrity, secured for himself and family a respectable competency” (Morrison).

It’s that investment that demonstrated John’s trading prowess enough for one such as Enos Collins to take note. Collins and John Allison became partners in more than a couple of vessels during the War of 1812. John had shares in other vessels at that time (although none as profitable as Liverpool Packet), and took advantage of Halifax’s prosperity to generate an inheritance for his family.

It turns out that the War of 1812 was the last time privateers played a pivotal role in armed conflict. Halifax made a number of people wealthy through the War of 1812. John Allison and his family were among them. The Allison prosperity was maintained through the 19^th century, and the family continued to farm and trade in their goods around the colony. John’s son William (1792-1851) was equally engaged in the family businesses.

William continued to accumulate lands in Northumberland, and owned shares in ships such as the Lisbon, a brigantine, but at this point as a merchant and trader, not a privateer. William Allison died in 1851 in Charlestown, Massachusetts of “insanity”. His death certificate lists Somerville as his place of death, which also happens to be the location of the McLean Hospital, known as Somerville Asylum. This psychiatric institution was founded in 1811 in Charlestown. In 1850, William and his 20-year-old daughter Sarah travelled on the schooner Lark, along with three other passengers, with the intention of living in the United States. It stands to reason that Sarah brought her father to this relatively modern hospital in the hopes of a cure to whatever mental illness plagued him.

Perhaps William’s mental illness is the reason his son Joseph (1840-1924) decided at the age of 12 to leave home and try his hand at the merchant trade in Saint John. By the age of 13 he was working in the dry goods business as an apprentice and within another 13 years, he entered into a partnership with James Manchester and James F. Robertson that would last into the next century.

Joseph Allison 1840-1924

The two thriving businesses that contributed greatly to the prosperity of Saint John will be the focus of part three of this four part series on the merchants of the Allison and Hayward families.

Sources

Various immigration, census and land transfer records

Secondary sources

History of the Alison or Allison Family in Europe and North America, Leonard A. Morrison (1893)

A Genealogical Study, Winthrop Pickard Bell (1962)