Enoch Marshall: Living in Nova Scotia during Confederation

Some ancestors are easy to track. You find one document and suddenly it leads you to an entire history of a family line. Then there’s the ancestors who you can spend years trying to find documents for with very little to show for it. My 4^th great grandfather, Enoch Marshall, falls into the latter category. I’ve seen certain information for his death and marriage to my 4^th great grandmother, Jane Hanspiker, on people’s family trees on ancestry.ca, however, they didn’t give a source for the information, and I have been unsuccessful in finding documentation to confirm that information.

This line of my ancestry is on my maternal line, through my great grandfather, George Angus Grant. I do also have a Marshall line on my paternal side, who lived in Scotland until my 2^nd great grandmother, Ann Marshall moved to Canada with her husband, Peter Williamson in 1905… but I digress… back to this Marshall line…

They came up from Massachusetts. Isaac and Mary (nee: Robbins) Marshall settled in Nova Scotia in 1760. Their son, David Marshall and his wife, Elizabeth (nee: Beardsley) had a son, Enoch Marshall, who I’m writing about today.

Enoch was born in 1807 in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. The next record I found for him is the 1838 Census. From this document, I know he was already married to Jane Hanspiker and that they had a total of six people in the household. Besides the two of them there is 1 boy and 1 girl under 6 years old, and 1 boy and 1 girl under 14 years old. On the 1861 census for Annapolis, there is an Enoch Marshall listed, and there are 3 males and 3 females in the household. In Hutchison’s Nova Scotia Directory, 1866-1867 a farmer named Enoch Marshall is listed as living in Wilmot. Also in McAlpine’s Nova Scotia Directory, 1868-1869, there is a farmer named Enoch Marshall listed as living in Wilmot. As this is the only Enoch Marshall I found, it is likely the same person.

I was also able to find marriage registrations confirming 3 children, one being my 3^rd great grandmother, Samantha Marshall, as well as 2 other children:

·        Ebenezer (1841-), m. Barbara Grant (1846-)

·        Samantha (1843-1931), m. John Grant (1843-)

·        Mary Eliza (1845-1922), m. Samuel Bent (1841-)

Looking at the 1838 Census in conjunction with these three marriage registrations it appears that Enoch and Jane had at least 7 children, assuming the 4 children living with them on the 1838 Census are their children, and taking into consideration that the latter 3 were born after the 1838 census.

This, sadly, is the extent of personal information I have found on Enoch. However, since he is listed in the Hutchison’s Directory for 1866-1867 we know that he and his family were living in Nova Scotia when the colony joined Confederation. This was an interesting time in Nova Scotia as many opposed joining, especially those involved in the prosperous shipping, shipbuilding and farming industries. Enoch was a farmer. Was he opposed too? Journalist and politician, Joseph Howe, was a vocal opponent to Confederation. He felt Nova Scotia would be a neglected member of a much larger country, and believed the colony would flourish on its own. He and those who agreed felt much closer familial and economic ties to the New England states than to Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec). He thought the people of the colony of Nova Scotia, a population of about 350,000 should make the decision. Despite popular opposition, the Nova Scotia delegations in the 1864 Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences committed to the colony joining Confederation, believing it would be beneficial in securing against a possible American expansion, a wider domestic market for Nova Scotia trade goods, as well as financial help to construct a national railway linking the Atlantic colonies to Ontario and Quebec. Two years later, Premier Charles Tupper, who had led the Nova Scotia delegates, used his government’s majority in the colonial legislature to pass the terms of Confederation agreed to in Quebec. The decision to join the Confederation sparked protests, and anti-Confederation Nova Scotian’s fought for 2 years to repeal the union but they were unsuccessful. Nova Scotia officially joined the Confederation in 1867, and was one of the founding provinces, along with New Brunswick, and the former province of Canada, which became to separate provinces: Ontario and Quebec.

So, although I am frustrated at the lack of personal information I have found on Enoch, it is helpful to know where he was and what his profession was at the time of Confederation. It gives me an idea of what it would have been like living there at the time, which is always interesting to learn. I do know that I could learn more by hiring someone in Nova Scotia to do local research for me, however, it is my hope to do that myself one day. Researching is my favourite part. Having someone else do it would spoil the fun!

Until next time, happy hunting, fellow gene geeks!

Sources:

1861 Census of Canada

Ancestry.ca

Census Returns, Assessment & Poll Tax Records, 1767-1838

History of the County of Annapolis

Hutchison’s Nova Scotia Directory, 1866-1867, Nova Scotia, Canada

Library and Archives Canada

McAlpine’s Nova Scotia Directory, 1868-1869, Nova Scotia, Canada

North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000

Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics (novascotiagenealogy.com)

The Canadian Encyclopedia (thecanadianencyclopedia.ca)