Collection: 1816-1860

            Enos Collins (seafarer, merchant, financier, government official) was born in Liverpool on September 5, 1775 to Hallet Collins (1749-1831), a merchant trader, and his wife Rhoda Peek; his grandfather Joseph Collins had brought the family in 1760 from Chatham, Massachusetts to Nova Scotia to become one of the original inhabitants of Liverpool, Nova Scotia. With little formal education, Enos learned much from his early years working at sea. By the age of 15 he was engaged in salmon fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and by 19 was the master of a vessel on a trading voyage to Quebec. As an adult he undertook mercantile voyages and business opportunities buying and selling vessels as well as goods out of Liverpool; by the year 1811, he had moved his regular business to Halifax. 

The war years were profitable for Enos. He engaged in privateering ventures, such as buying the privateer Liverpool Packet, bidding at auction ships condemned by the Vice-Admiralty Court, buying large amounts of prize goods and selling them to America, dealing in real estate, and with his large warehouse and wharf on the Halifax water front, carrying on an active and varied trade. Enos collaborated in business with different people at different times, such as Joseph Allison, William B. Fairbanks and Jonathan C. Allison, and ventured into the whaling and lumbering industries. In 1825 he also was the main figure in the creation of the Halifax Banking Company, which had no competition until 1832. Enos was encouraged to take a seat on Council in 1822 and remained until 1840. 

Personally, Enos married Margaret (died 1854) in Haliax, June 28, 1825. Margaret was the eldest daughter of Brenton Halliburton (1774-1860), son of Newport, Rhode Island physician John Halliburton (died 1807), who, as a loyalist, was forced to flee Newport during the American Revolution. Brenton, a good friend of Collins, was an army officer during the years of conflict between the French and English in the 1790s, became a lawyer at the turn of the century, and had great success in his careers as a puisne judge of the Supreme Court, a member of Council, and chief justice of Nova Scotia. Together, they had nine children of which 3 daughters and one son survived to adulthood.

            

            The Collection contains documents generated or accumulated by Enos Collins in his role as executor to his father’s estate, as a large property owner, as a caring family member to others in the Liverpool area, and as a friend to Brenton Halliburton. Documents include correspondence, financial records, Chancery Court papers, deeds and mortgages, and promissory notes. Subject matter includes politics and government, trade, family health, land and property, and justice.

Arrangement and Detailed Contents:  Arranged by volume with separate page numbers for each.

Reel No. 1 (Vol. 226)

1) No. 1-20 (1829-1859): Most of the letters are from Enos Collins to family and to friend Brenton Halliburton concerning family matters, and with Brenton particularly, topics included government affairs pertaining to colonial trade and duties, and personal finances among other things.
2) No. 21-28 (1831-32, 1850): Hallet Collins’s estate. Mostly pertains to the estate of Enos’s father, Hallet who died in 1831, as Enos was an executor; largely accounts.
3) No. 29-64 (1828-1842): Accounts and letters between Chief Justice Brenton Halliburton and Enos. Most of the material deals with personal family matters (Halliburton is Enos’s father-in-law), such as a death in the family and property matters, and with professional matters dealing with government; also contains documents pertaining to the court case of John Inglis v. Trustees, relating to Sailors Snug Harbor on Staten Island, New York City; and one document concerning Hallet’s estate (1825).
4) No. 65-99 (1819-1831): Papers regarding the settling of [Hallet] Collins’s (Enos’s father) estate. 
5) No. 100-164 (1831-1853)

Reel No. 2 (Vol. 226 continued)

5) No. 165-177 (1856-1860)
6) No. 178-214 (1823-1855): Papers regarding Dr. Andrew Webster, surgeon at Liverpool, and his wife Hannah Collins (sister of Enos), including promissory notes for repayment of loans, 2 letters between Enos and Andrew, 2 deeds between Andrew and John, and Andrew and James Barss, and Andrew’s account with Henry Collins (1823-51); and letters to and from John, James, and Sarah Barss, and Enos (1853-55).
7) No. 213-255 (1816-1843): Deeds, mortgages, agreements about roads, etc. related to property; Concerns Tremain’s Rope Walk in Halifax.
8) No. 256: Contains a short informational section about Enos Collins and waterfront buildings in Halifax, published by Indian and Northern Affairs, 1975.

Vol. 227

1) No. 1-11 (1829-1842, several undated documents): Accounts and business finances, examples include Supreme Court judgement in favour of Enos against Freeman Allen, 1829; Financial Account of Joseph Allison, 1842; Account to Enos from Joseph Fairbanks, 1842.
2) No. 12-15 (1829-1837): Papers regarding the property of John [Bengay].
3) No. 16-23 (1841-50): Papers regarding the mortgages of John Crosskill.
4) No. 24-57 (1840-49): Bonds, mortgages, correspondence, etc. concerning Johnston property in St. John (present-day Saint John); includes a description of the property.
5) No. 58-72 (mostly undated): Papers regarding the mortgages on the property of Thomas Roach of Amherst; and William Crane of Sackville.
Reel No. 3 (Vol. 227 continued)
3) No. 73-95 (1822-1848): Papers regarding mortgages on the property of Thomas Roach; and William Crane continued.
4) No. 96-114 (1817-1832): Deeds to property on which E. Collins held a mortgage or which were needed for title search of property mortgaged later; includes a mortgage of the schooner “Sophia” from Seth Seely to Enos, 1817.
5) No. 115-135 (1824-1853): Indentures, deeds of sale, releases, mortgages, lease of land -  pertaining to property in the Halifax area and some elsewhere, such as Arachat; some of the surnames include: Halliburton, Heaviside, Schmidt, Kavanaugh, Nutting, Marshall, McDonald, Horn, Gray, Stratton, Johns, Mack, Landers, Hill, and Austen.
6) No. 136-137 (1819): Petition of Enos Collins and Joseph Allison, merchants, to the House of Assembly pertaining to the late firm of Moody & Stuart.

            

            Online: Document Lists are available.

1. Nova Scotia Archives’ catalogue record for the Enos Collins Fonds contains a list found at https://novascotia.ca/archives/lists/enos-collins-fonds.pdf.

2. A more detailed document listing for volume 226, document numbers 1-69, and for volume 227, document numbers 115-137 is available, see Electronic Finding Aid section.
            

Alternate titles: The collection is also titled the Enos Collins Fonds in the Nova Scotia Archives online catalogue.

Related Publication: “Letters and Papers of Hon. Enos Collins” found in the Bulletin of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, No. 13 (HIL-GOV L33FP73 B936 no. 13).