William Gifford Dobson (1862-1932) and his second wife Julia Bugley.  William Dobson could trace his ancestry back to the Yorkshire settlers via his mother, Ruth Caroline Wells Dobson.  Picture courtesy Carol J. Dobson

Archie was helping Dad do some haying and had stayed for supper. I listened as the adults spoke of the going-ons in the community. It seemed that Archie along with his son Ralph and others were leaving in a day or two to go to Ontario to pick tobacco. The owner of the Tobacco Field had sent a letter that he needed hard working fellows for the job again this summer. Although the work was backbreaking, the money was good.

I guess history has a way of repeating itself as way back in 1758, Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia, which included present day New Brunswick, invited New Englanders to come to Nova Scotia and take up free land grants. But the settlement of the granted lands did not proceed as quickly as hoped by British authorities and some New Englanders wanted to sell  their properties and return home.

Therefore Governor Michael Franklin in 1771 went to the North Riding of Yorkshire, England to seek immigrants for Nova Scotia. Between 1772 and1775 over 20 ships carrying more than a 1000 settlers left Yorkshire bound for Nova Scotia.  These folk had been artisans, manufacturers, tradespeople and tenant farmers who were affected as lands were enclosed for sheep farming and rents were raised. Many were early leaders of the Methodist Church, people like William Wells, George Forster and William Black.

Whole families gathered together - fathers, mothers, children, aunts, uncles and grandparents - to start a new life on their own land in the area known as Westmorland and Cumberland Counties and in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. The idea of purchasing their own property made the hardships of the transition and long journey seem worthwhile. Few received grants of land but came with enough money in their pocket to buy property from the New England settlers who were leaving the province. Life was not easy for these settlers who had to deal with mosquitoes, black flies, wild animals, new foods, harsh winters, hot summers and illness.

The new land was similar to the land they had left behind. The East Coast of Yorkshire is marshy in places so they knew how to refurbish the dykes left by the departing Acadians and harness the marshes to produce rich hay.

The entire population of present day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was about 17,000 when the Yorkshire immigrants started arriving at Fort Cumberland in 1772.

The currently identified Yorkshire family names are:  Ainson Anderson Andrew Appleton Atkinson Barlow Barr Bath Beaver Bennett Berwick Beys Biggin Black Blackburn Blashell Blenkey Blenkhon Blenkinsop Boast Bowser Briggs Brown Bulmer Calvert Carter Chapman Charlton Charmick Clark Clarkson Coates Cole ColpittsCornforth Coulson Crawford Davis Dean Dewthwaite Dimond Dixon Dobson Donkin Duke Ellis Fairbairn Fawcett Fenley Fenton Fenwick Fielding Flintoff Forster Freeze Garbut Geldart Gilliat Graham Habishaw Hall Hardy Harper Harrison Hawkworth Hayton Hemsel Hill Hodgson Holiday Hopper Horsman Hudry Hulton Humphrey Hunter Jackson Jaques Jarratt Jefferson Johnson Johnston Kay Keillor King Kneeshaw Lamb Layton Leach Leming Lewis Little Lodge Lowerison Lowry Lowther Lusby Lumley Marshall Maugham Mennard Mills Milner Milton Moon Mitton Newton Noddings Oldfield Oliver Oxley Palister Patison Parker Patterson Pearson Peck Peebles Pickering Pickney Pipes Praid Read Remmington Richardson Ripley Robertson Robinson Routh Routledge Savage Scott Scurr Sedgewick Sharrow Sherwood Shipley Shires Siddall Silk Simpson Sinton Skelton Slee Smith Snowdon Stapleton Staveley Steel Stibbins Stiles Stockdale Swinburn Tatum Taylor Thompson Topham Towse Tranner Trenholm Trerice Trueman Turnbull Veckel Walker Walton Ward Waterworth Watson Webster Weldon Wells Wheatley Wilkinson Wilson Winn Wood and Wry.

On August 3, 2000, the Yorkshire 2000 week-long gathering will be held at Mount Allison University, Sackville, N.B. to reunite the descendants of these families who emigrated from Yorkshire, England to the Chignecto Region and due to the winds of time are scattered through out the world.

Some of the events planned are: Family Reunions; Ship Gatherings; Methodist Church Services; Concerts; Historic Tours of Tantramar; Theatrical Presentations; Displays of Yorkshire Artifacts and the list goes on.

For more information contact Yorkshire 2000, % Tantramar Heritage Trust, PO Box 6301, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, E4L 1G6. Telephone (506) 536-4895. Visit their website at http://tapnet.tap.nb.ca/tht/york2000.html.
 

Query 98-681
Cochrane - Patterson - Kirkpatrick: I'm looking for information on the parents of two sisters. #1) Ellenor Cochrane was born in1812 and married Barnabas Kirkpatrick on Aug. 10, 1830 at St. Andrews Kirk and St. Stephens Church. They were grandparents of my husband's grandmother, Ella Jane (Kirkpatrick) March who lived in Fairfield, New Brunswick. #2)  Jane Cochrane was born in 1802 in County Derry, Ireland and married John C. Patterson on Sept. 26, 1825 in the Church of Scotland.  They were parents of my Great Grandmother Margaret (Paterson) Collins who was the grandmother of my father Arthur W. Collins. She lived in Shanklin Settlement, New Brunswick. I would like to know if Ellenor and Jane came out from Ireland alone or with siblings or relatives.
 -Heather (Collins) March, 2060 Upper Quaco Rd., Fairfield, NB., E5R 1Z4. Or E-mail to jhmarch89@hotmail.com.
 

Ruby M. Cusack is a genealogy buff living in Saint John. Send your queries to her at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca. (Please put Yesteryear Families in the subject line.) Include your name and mailing address for the benefit of those who do not have access to E-mail.