CHAPTER I.

William Black was born in Paisley, Scotland, in the year 1727.

His father was a public officer, and possessed an independent fortune. His leisure was largely employed in the chase, and he kept a good pack of hounds. Until William was twenty-one years of age he had turned his attention to little else than the recreation of following the hounds. Soon after this he engaged as travelling salesman for a large manufacturing concern. In one of his tours he met an English lady in Huddersfield, England--Elizabeth Stocks--whom he married. About the same time he engaged in the linen and woollen drapery business.

By the spelling of the name Stocks, in the will of Thomas Stocks, STOKES, his sister--Mrs. Black--and her heirs were deprived of twenty thousand pounds of the property, which went to a maiden lady named Stokes, who was a connection of Mrs. Stocks. Mrs. Black's portion was thus reduced to fifteen hundred pounds.

Mrs. Black, as well as her husband, moved in the higher circles of fashion and refinement. She was accustomed to follow the hounds. When she came to Nova Scotia, she brought the scarlet riding habit and the cap she used to wear when engaged in the chase; also, dresses of embroidered white satin and other rich and costly materials for which she found but little use in the new country.

A few years after his marriage William Black's mind was drawn toward Nova Scotia, as a most desirable country.

At that time there were rich agricultural districts in the province untenanted in consequence of the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in the year 1755. An unbroken stillness had for several years reigned over the ruins which showed the sites of the former dwellings of those expelled.

In the year 1758 Governor Lawrence, who was then Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, had given invitations to the inhabitants of the New England colonies, inviting such as might be disposed to do so to come over and occupy those lands, offering them liberal inducements.

These people were more readily induced to leave New England and come to Nova Scotia by the liberal agreement, ratified by the Governor, that they should have the unrestricted liberty of exercising all their civil and religious rights, there being at the time some restrictions to religious liberty laid on some of the denominations residing in New York, Virginia, and other of the then British Colonies (now constituting the United States). Governor Lawrence therefore issued a proclamation securing full liberty of conscience and worship to all denominations of christians. These worthy people in coming to Nova Scotia found themselves relieved from burdens they had borne at home.
Among those who came from New England was a small Baptist Church which emigrated en masse from Massachusetts to Sackville (then Nova Scotia), now New Brunswick, in the year 1763. They brought their pastor with them and the church was soon after considerably enlarged.

Michael Franklin, who at that time was Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, engaged several families to emigrate from Yorkshire, England, to Nova Scotia in the year 1772. These people arrived in Cumberland on the 21st May, having been detained a few weeks in Halifax. Others came in 1773 and in 1774 from the same place and settled in different parts at the head of the Bay of Fundy.

Our object at present is to speak of William Black and his descendants, yet we shall refer to many other prominent families.

Mr. Black (then of Huddersfield, England) after some careful reflection respecting a removal to America, prudently concluded to see the country before removing his family thither. In accordance with these views he reached Halifax May, 1774, thence came to Cumberland. Here he saw those who had emigrated from New England residing at Amherst, where he purchased an estate, a part of which are the farms now owned by Mr. George Black, his sons, and Mr. Rupert Black. William Black returned to England in the autumn of 1774 and in the following April chartered a vessel in which he brought his family, consisting of his wife, four sons, and a daughter. He also brought a nurse girl who married a son of one of the emigrants. He also brought some stock of improved breeds. He was detained at Halifax two weeks when he again embarked for Cumberland. Mrs. Black received some injuries in getting on board the vessel at Hull which are supposed to have hastened her death, which took place about a year after her arrival in America. She was highly esteemed as possessed of an elevated mind and many christian virtues. Their eldest son, John, was sixteen years old when they arrived at their new home in America.

At this time the population of Halifax was estimated at 3,000 inhabitants, and that of the province at 12,000. This was about 25 years after the first settlement of Halifax.
The several families who came from Yorkshire bore the following names;--Dixon, Wells, Trueman, Weldon, Bowser, Chapman, Freeze, Ripley, Shipley, Fawcett, Keillor, Trenholm, Read, Donkin, Oxley, Smith, Atkinson, Dobson, Pipes, Anderson, Harrison, Johnson, Robinson, Lusby, Foster, and others, whose numerous descendants are spread over the land to which their fathers emigrated.

Most of these families are too well known to require any eulogy from the writer; suffice it to say they have become household names through the country, and are generally esteemed for their sobriety, industry, and religious principles. Let it be remembered that those who now, in the year 1882, are accounted old men, are the grand-children of those emigrants from Yorkshire.

Charles Dixon purchased over two thousand acres of land in Sackville, where he settled, on which some of his posterity now reside. William Wells and William Trueman settled at Point de Bute, then called Prospect, Ripley and Shipley at Nappan, Thomas Bowser and John and William Fawcett at Sackville, New Brunswick. William Freeze purchased what is now known as the Keillor property at Amherst, also, a large area of land on the southwest of the same and now owned by several parties. At that time the marsh produced broadleaf and other wild grasses, except one small stack of English, and Mr. Freeze, and most others thought it was destined to remain the same. He, therefore, sold and removed to Upper Sussex, now Penobsquis, New Brunswick, purchased a large block of land on the river, with low lands adapted to produce a large quantity of English hay.

His posterity have filled, and some of them now fill responsible situations in Kings County. William Donkin lived several years at Westmorland, near Fort Cumberland, and removed thence to River Philip. George Oxley settled at Amherst, but subsequently removed to Wallace. John Weldon first settled at Hillsboro, N.B., and removed to Dorchester in 1780. Mr. Read first settled at River Hebert, and subsequently moved to Nappan. Thomas Lusby and Thomas Robinson jointly bought lands lying in Amherst between Laplanche street and the mill brook, including the brook. Mr. Lusby built a mill on the brook. Some of the descendants now live on the property. The Robinson portion is all out of the name.

The most of these people were of the Methodist denomination. In their accustomed zeal special meetings were held at Amherst in 1779, when Mr. Black, his wife, four sons and daughter all professed to have entertained a hope in the merits of the Saviour and united with the Methodist Church. Thomas S., the youngest son, some years after, became a Baptist, as will be noticed in chapter 5, William became a faithful and very successful Methodist Minister, and John also became a local preacher. Most particular notice will be taken of the descendants of these persons, beginning with the eldest.

The names of the children of William and Elizabeth Black, who came with their parents from England, are John, William, Richard, Thomas Stocks, and Sarah. Mr. Black married a second wife, Elizabeth Abber, by whom he had seven children, namely: Elizabeth, Mary, Nancy, Jane, James, Alexander, Joseph A., and George Mason. After his second marriage he purchased a large estate in Dorchester, New Brunswick, where he lived the latter part of his life with his son Joseph, and where he died in the year 1820 at the advanced age of 93 years. Some of his grand-children now live on portions of this same farm, other portions of it having been sold and gone out of the name.

Mr. Black held the Commission of Justice of the Peace for Cumberland, and in 1779 was appointed Judge of the Common Pleas. To him, Edward Barron, and Charles Baker, were the Court House grounds, at Amherst, deeded, in trust for the County of Cumberland, by Mr. William Freeman, in the year 1788, those three men being then prominent Justices of the County.

William Black, Esquire, survived his second wife several years. He, at the age of 88 years, rode on horseback from Dorchester to Amherst, then thirty miles to visit his sons residing there. He was a remarkably well proportioned man, and retained an erect and dignified bearing to old age.

Both secular and religious interests suffered severely in Cumberland in consequence of the Revolutionary War which had broken out, some of the New England settlers sympathizing with their friends that revolted. In 1776, by the influence of disaffected persons in the country, the garrison at Fort Cumberland was besieged by a force from Machias. They disarmed those who were friendly to the Government, and forbade them to stir off their farms under penalty of imprisonment or death. The number of men in the garrison being small they did not attempt to come out to relieve the country until they were reinforced by the arrival of a frigate from Halifax. In the night the flashes and reports of the cannon and musketry at the fort were watched and heard by Mr. Black's family at Amherst, only a few miles distant.

Various and numerous were the difficulties these English emigrants encountered in this their new country, in which Mr. Black shared, to perhaps a more limited extent than many others. Both the men and the women were robust and vigorous, and remarkably adapted to the settlement of a new country. Here we will leave them and notice their posterity.