| Background: |
Handley Chipman (1714-1799) was a New England planter who took his family from Rhode Island to Cornwallis Township, Nova Scotia circa 1764. The family became very successful and prominent members of their community both in public and private spheres. Handley's son William Allen (1757-1745) married Ann in 1777, daughter of the Saint John merchant Samuel Osborn, and had many children: Rebecca, William (1781-1865), Handley (1784-1858), Sarah, Samuel (1790-1891, who first married Elizabeth, the sister of geologist Abraham Gesner), and Ann. William Allen was a wealthy merchant with substantial landholdings, and also held many public offices: clerk of Cornwallis Township and customs collector for the county (1794-1845), justice of the peace (1797-1845), and judge of the inferior court of common please (1821-1841); as well as a member of the provincial assembly at various times. On the religious front, he worked to deprive the Church of England of its privileges and to attain funding for baptist and presbyterian educational institutions such as the Horton and Pictou academies, and later, Acadia College. He was an active member of the Cornwallis New Light Congregational Church; his brother Thomas and son William were among the first ordained Baptist ministers. The family traditions of public service and entrepreneurship can be seen with Chipman's children and generations thereafter.
Kings County in this time period contained the townships of Horton, Aylesford, Cornwallis, and Parrsboro which was on the north side of Minas Channel in the Minas Basin of Nova Scotia.
The Collection as a whole covers many generations of the Chipman family in Kings County from 1760 to 1899; The Loyalist Collection only holds a small portion, namely from volume 189, documents 305 to 675. |
| Contents: |
The Kings County records relate predominantly to William Allen Chipman's local public roles, spanning the years 1821 to 1825, with the bulk of the material dating 1821 to 1823. The documents relate to the activities of the Court of General Sessions held at Horton in which Chipman's signature as clerk and justice of the peace is found; and include minutes, petitions, reports, accounts, licence bonds, appointments, and subpoenas or warrants. The places often mentioned are the Townships of Cornwallis, Horton, Aylesford, and Parrsboro (which is today in Cumberland County), as well as the communities and people within. The topics relate to the governing of these communities both in civil and criminal matters, and include education and schools, government, local history, law and justice, public works and infrastructure, labour, poverty, finances, demography and to a lesser extent, women's and black history. These records provide insight into the people and places in Kings County that saw immigration from planters in the 1760s and American loyalists in the 1780s. Arrangement and Detailed Contents: - Statute labour certifications (no. 305-311, 444-478, 636-675)
- Road Documents (no. 312-322, 484-486)
- School Papers (no. 323-351, 437-443)
- Letter from David Whidden (no. 352)
- Fence Viewers' brief report (no. 353-355)
- List of Town Officers (no. 356-359, 491)
- Petition of Isaac Willoughby, formerly a slave (no. 360)
- Overseers of the poor's accounts (361-373, 492-494)
- Criminal charges or complaints dealing with assaults, assaults and battery, and theft (no. 374-377, 525-579, 581-584, 586-596)
- Circular respecting collection of debts under £5 (no. 378-80)
- Grand Jury Presentments (no. 381-386, 524, 580)
- Petit Jurors called (no. 387)
- Search warrant issued (no. 388)
- County Bills in connection with prisoner, roads, etc. (no. 389-412, 496-523)
- Perez Benjamin replaced Robert Mitchener (no. 413)
- License accounts (no. 414-419, 612-614)
- Bonds for shop and tavern licenses (no. 420-433, 615-635)
- Order for expenditure of Parrsboro license money 9No. 434)
- List of fines to be collected (no. 435, 600-606)
- Subpoena served relating to an investigation on building Cornwallis Bridge (no. 436)
- Petitions concerning various roads (no. 479-483)
- Order for license and county money (no. 487-490)
- Gaoler Charles Chipman asks for well for gaol (no. 495)
- Letter from Mr. Chipman concerning payment of money owed by him (no. 585)
- Petitions from J.C. Beckwith and James Ratchford (no. 597-599)
- Recommendations for licenses (no. 607-611)
See Electronic Finding Aid section for more detailed information for this volume. |
