Land Grants

Cape d’Or Land Grants

At a Council meeting at Halifax on Saturday, January 8, 1763 it was approved that a grant of land be made to Captain Abel Michener, Michael Michener (Abel’s son), Matthew Sheppard, William Forbes and George Forbes on a tract of land adjoining Advocate Harbour near Cape Dorée in the Bay of Fundy. (Note 1) The 2,000 acres granted is shown in Sketch 1 and is the area bounded by the Glebe Line, Cape Line and the seashore. [The term “Glebe” is often used to identify a portion of Church property such as the Glebe House or Glebe land. In mining, the term is used to identify a tract of land containing mineral ore. A line across land containing mineral ore could be identified as a Glebe Line.]

Abel Michener was born about 1720 in Rhode Island and married Sarah Chadwick on April 26, 1746, in Rhode Island. He was a privateer and my 5th great grandfather. He and his family arrived in Nova Scotia in 1761 where he and his sons were granted land in Falmouth, N.S. They settled there. Abel and son Michael Michener were the only ones of the Michener grant who came to N.S. The other three men remained in England. Abel Michener and family lived in Falmouth but never in the Advocate Area.

This land grant, like others, had certain conditions that had to be met. Each of the five people receiving a portion of the grant had to pay one shilling on Michaelmas day (September 29th in England) for every 50 acres so granted and in proportion for a greater or lesser quantity of land granted. One had to plant, cultivate, improve or enclose one-third of the land granted within 10 years; one other third within 20 years and the remaining third within 30 years. Each of the grantees had to settle one family on their land within two years of the grant date. If the conditions within the grant were not met by the grantee then the grant could be escheated and granted to someone else.

This land was never escheated but it did sit idle for a number of years. In 1775 Michael Michener sold his 250 acres to Joseph Gray of Halifax. In 1785 Abel Michener sold his grant of 250 acres plus Matthew Shepherd’s grant of 500 acres to the Right Honourable Thomas Harley of London, England. Abel was the heir-at-law of the land of the deceased Matthew Shepherd. In 1787 Joseph Gray sold the land purchased from Michael Michener to the Right Honourable Thomas Harley. In 1789 Margaret Forbes of Aberdeen, North Britain, sold all the lands formerly belonging to George and William Forbes, deceased, to the Right Honourable Thomas Harley. So now the Right Honourable Thomas Harley owned the 2,000 acres granted on Cape Dorée in 1763.

In 1785 Charles Morris Jr., son of Charles Morris Sr., chief surveyor of the province, was granted 500 acres on Cape Dorée, including Spencers Island (see Sketch 1). In 1793 Charles Morris Jr. sold the 500 acres to the Right Honourable Thomas Harley. Harley died in 1804. In 1836 his daughter, the Right Honourable Anne Rodney, appointed the Honourable Samuel Cunard of Halifax, N.S. as her attorney in the management and conduct of lands in N.S. I could find no records showing the sale of the 2,500 acres of land on Cape d’Or owned by the Right Honourable Anne Rodney.

Sketch 1: Cape d’Or Land Grants

Advocate Area Land Grants

In 1784 the Government of Nova Scotia drew up plans for the first 12 grants of land in Advocate (Sketch 2).

Each lot was to be for 500 acres and they were laid out starting with Lot 1 to the west and Lot 10 ending just east of the harbour; Lots 11 and 12 being west of Lot 1. The west line of Lot 1, running at N220 30’ E, started at the brook just west of the Red Rocks. However, when the grants were made out they were done to show Lot 9 as the most easterly lot, not Lot 10. So Lot 10 was placed where Lot 1 originally was and Lots 1 to 9 shifted to the east. Lots 11 and 12 were to the west of Lot 10. These 500-acre lots would be about 1,329 feet wide by 16,500 feet deep, or about 1/4 mile wide by 3 miles deep. In addition to the 500 acres, each of the 12 lots was granted 1/12 of the 480 acres of marshland.

As you can see in Sketch 2, not all the grants were made in 1784. None of the grantees settled in Advocate. Most of grantees were living in Onslow or Londonderry and remained there. Two of the grantees, Thomas (Lot 12) and Jacob (Lot 7) Lynds (pronounced Lyons) were sons of Jacob and Mary Lynds of Onslow. They had a brother, Bernard, who was the first person to declare that he lived in Advocate Harbour, on any of the land deeds of Advocate. Advocate was part of the Township of Parrsboro and many people declared that they lived in Parrsboro when in fact they were living in Advocate. Then there were some who lived in Parrsboro before settling in Advocate. Bernard did not receive a grant of land in Advocate but he did buy Lot 7 from his brother Jacob in 1787 and sold it to Robert Spicer Sr. in 1793. What happened to Bernard after 1793 in unknown. Lot 9 granted to Thomas Stevens was escheated and then granted to Joshua Eagles and Robert Henwood, 250 acres for each.

The remaining grants bounded by the harbour, Cape d’Or and the division line of the Parrsboro grants were made between 1816 and 1901 as shown in Sketch 3.

Sketch 2: Land Grants, 1784

Sketch 3: Land Grants, 1816-1901

A man by the name of Neil McGeachy came from Scotland and acted as an agent for the Right Honorable Thomas Harley. In 1793 when Charles Morris Jr. sold his land to the Right Honorable Thomas Harley it was done through Neil McGeachy. Neil purchased Lot 12 from James Pettis in 1792, giving his address as Cape d’Ore . He was granted land in Windsor in 1800 and was drowned in the Bay of Fundy in 1802. Inventory of his estate in 1803 showed that he still had Lot 12 in Advocate. As mentioned earlier, Lot 12 was granted to Thomas Lynds and his brother Jacob Lynds received Lot 7, which he sold in 1787. Lot 12 was never sold by Neil McGeachy’s wife and remained idle for over 40 years. Then in 1846 William Armstrong purchased it… but he purchased it from the heirs of Jacob Lynds (Lot 7), not from the heirs of Neil McGeachy.

I remember years ago asking my aunt, Oressa Atkinson, where the name McGeachy Brook came from. She suggested that it was probably given that name by a local First Nations group. Well that answer served me well until I came across the name Neil McGeachy. Recently while sailing on the Queen Mary from New York to Halifax I asked the people sitting at the table next to us, who were from Scotland, how would they pronounce the name “McGeachy”? Their response was identical to the way we have pronounced it for many years. You will find the spelling as: “McGahey,” “Megachey,” “McGacky,” etc.