The following is Part One of a four-part series on the merchants of the Allison and Hayward Families
Like others
of my ancestors, the Haywards made their way to the colonies in order to take
advantage of land grants and become farmers.
In a previous blog, I wrote about Henry Hayward (1745-1808), who was the
first of our Hayward ancestors to settle in Nova Scotia after his discharge as
a foot soldier in the British Army. In
1785, Henry received 500 acres of land in Hants County.
Nova Scotia
in the 18th century included all of the Maritime provinces and parts
of Maine. The area had been subject to
significant upheaval during 75 years of colonial wars between the French, the
Mi’kmaq, the Acadians and the English. A
negotiated treaty between the English and the Mi’kmaq ended with the Burying
the Hatchet ceremony on June 25, 1761. The
treaty resulted in a joint commitment to the rule of law (although many
settlers ignored treaty commitments in the ensuing decades), and a relative
peace was created in the colonies.
New
Brunswick was separated in 1784 into a separate colony. Maine became part of America and Cape Breton also
became its own colony (although it returned to Nova Scotia in 1820). The colonies had been farmed for centuries
already, so it is unlikely that too much land would have needed clearing to sustain agriculture successfully. Indeed, the Acadians, since expelled, had
done much of the difficult work before this newest crew of Loyalists and
British army veterans settled the colony at the close of the American
Revolutionary War in 1783.
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| Hants County |
Henry Hayward had spent most of his adult life as a foot soldier in the British army. He and his
wife Nancy and their eight children started their new life in Nova Scotia as
farmers. Life would have been difficult for
settlers, particularly those who had not been farmers previously, like Henry. Annapolis Valley offered excellent agricultural opportunities, as did other
lands offered to the settlers. Our
family records show, however, that the Haywards were not satisfied with the
land they received, as it was "so rocky as to be practically worthless." Starting a career as a farmer on poor agricultural land with little or no experience would have been a daunting experience. Consistent with the times, all eight children were likely contributing to the welfare of the family and the working of the land.
There were other challenges as well. Correspondence
from the time complains of the “muss keetoes” that would “bite the English worse,” and
the “blackfly worse than all the rest.
Everyone in this country has trowsers, and several women, for they fly
up their petticoats and bite them terribly.”
Winters would have seen the end of these annoyances, but settlers would
have been greeted by a cold wind from the ocean and loads of impassable snow to
which they would not have been accustomed.
Products from overseas were expensive and settlers did their best to
become independent of their homeland.
The family
eventually moved to Windsor, in what is now New Brunswick, selling their
property in Hants County. At the turn of
the century, they moved again and tried their luck at farming on the other side
of the Bay of Fundy at Hopewell. This
new spot was right on the Bay, and there they settled into Shepody,
their family farm, for another decade. Shepody
had a beautiful view of the Bay, from which you could watch the ships
sailing into the harbour.
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| View of Albert County circa 1930 - near Shepody |
While the
family was living in Shepody, the Haywards met the McCullys. In fact, it was
their relationship with their neighbours during this time, the McCullys and the
Warwicks, that helped all of the families prosper for more than a century and a half.
Despite the beauty of the area, after the passing of Henry, George and Abigail Hayward opted to move again, from Shepody to Sussex, selling their beautiful Hopewell
farm to the McCully family.
In Sussex,
the Haywards bought 400 acres from the Force family, who were Loyalists from
Pennsylvania. Apparently the Forces had
done much to improve the land, which would have made the Haywards
well-positioned to settle into this property.
George Griffith Hayward and his wife Abigail Copp were staunch
Methodists and succeeded in bringing a Methodist minister from England to the
first Methodist Church built in Sussex in 1830.
George
Griffith continued the farming tradition of his father, as did his son, David. In 1821, David married Sarah McCully,
whose parents bought Shepody from the Haywards in 1811. They stayed together with David’s parents on
the farm in Sussex for two years. After
this, George Griffith Hayward purchased for the new couple 500 acres at Smith’s
Creek, where Sarah and David lived for 47 years as “models of piety, industry
and thrift”. They moved from Smith’s
Creek in 1870 to “spend their declining years at Penobsquis.” After 65 years of marriage and six children, a
severe illness took David’s life. Sarah,
however, rallied for another eight years and lived to be 93 years old.
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| William Henry Hayward and Augusta Parlee |
The next
generation of Haywards ventured out from farming to try their hands as
merchants. David and Sarah’s son William
Henry Hayward, grew up on the farm, but appears to have left home in his
twenties and moved to the city of Saint John where he was a labourer. Susannah, David and Sarah’s daughter, married
William Warwick, a merchant.
Even though
Henry Hayward’s original 500 acre land grant was not good land, it was good
enough for he and his family to continue to “trade-up” and sow the seeds of
some amount of good fortune in their lives in Canada. The Haywards continued as farmers through
four generations, and eventually my branch of the family tree became successful
merchants.
The next
part in this series will be about the merchant roots of the Allison family in Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick.
Sources (primary):
Census (various)
Birth and death records
Obit of Sarah McCully – May 4,
1894, Kings County Record
Sources on history of settlement of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick:
Photo of Albert County from McCord Museum http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/1987.17.1130
Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nova-scotia/
Loyalists – the First Refugees
(1775-1812) http://www.canadiana.ca/citm/themes/pioneers/pioneers4_e.html
http://westhantshistoricalsociety.ca/history/
History of Hayward and Warwick
Telegraph Jounral article by Mike
Mullen
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