Black Loyalists of Annapolis County

Fundy Mountain or Delap’s Cove was the name applied to the black settlement that once existed on the North Mountain near the Bay of Fundy shore, at the extreme west end of the Shore Road. It probably dates from the purchase by Ishmael Scanks in May of 1806 of 200 acres of land on the North Mountain in Granville from Moses Shaw Esq. for £40. The property was backland of lot #22, and was located on the west side of a mountain crossroad between lots #22 and 23. Although the name Ishmael Scanks is not listed among the Black Loyalists with a surname, he is likely the Ishmael, listed as a black refugee settled in Annapolis County in 1784. He married Tamar Brothers, step-daughter of Samuel Brothers, a Black Loyalist from Virginia. Their descendants formed the core of the original community. In addition to five sons, daughter Sylvia/Priscilla married in 1817 Matthias Esser, a German soldier stationed at Annapolis Royal with the 60th Battalion, and daughter Clarissa married in 1819 Thomas Thompson, son of a Black Loyalist. Other early settlers were the descendants of John Pomp, Black Loyalist from Virginia, whose descendants use the surname Stevenson, and Black Loyalists Joseph Sims and John Peters. The settlement had a house of worship, the Fundy Mountain African Baptist Church. Several members of the community were fisherman. Beginning in the 1830s, a number of the black people of Delap’s Cove moved first to Maine, and eventually to Lynn, Massachusetts and surrounding towns in search of work. The bulk of the former black settlement, with only foundations visible now, lies within the Delap’s Cove Wilderness Trail. The house of the community’s last resident, Charlie Marsman, who died in 2013, was last to survive near the trail’s entrance. It was demolished in 2018 after a fire.

The black settlement at Granville Ferry was historically located at the foot of the mountain in the back of the village and along the main road beyond its western limit at the Mills Mountain Road. This road crossed the North Mountain and connected Granville to Hillsburn on the Bay of Fundy Shore. John Thompson and ferryman Thomas Pomp, both the sons of Black Loyalists, owned parts of Lots #40 and #41 by the 1820s, land they had probably acquired from members of the Mills family, the original grantees. The community grew throughout the 1800s due in part to the economic activity in Annapolis and Granville Ferry at the time. Baptist residents of the settlement were members of the Fundy Section African Baptist Church at Delap’s Cove, a daunting distance. Around 1895, an African Baptist Church was built in Granville Ferry. The black community at Granville Ferry survived until the end of the 20th century. Most of the young people moved to urban centres in Canada

At the end of the American Revolution, refugees flooded into the tiny community of Annapolis Royal, the province’s former capital. Several acres of glebe land owned by the Church of England in the Lower Town had been leased for years to military widows and pensioners. A number of the more destitute Loyalists, including some blacks, gravitated to this part of the town. One was likely a man named Fortune who with his wife and daughter was listed in the Loyalist Muster Roll. The daughter grew to become Rose Fortune, a significant figure in the black history of Nova Scotia, who started a baggage-handling business from the wharves in town. It is her descendants who formed the core of the black community that existed in Annapolis Royal until the late 20th century. The houses that filled the glebe property were moved and arranged around its perimeter when the railway was put through in 1869, with title to the houses sold to their existing tenants. Members of the black community in the Lower Town were adherents of St. Luke’s Anglican Church.

The black settlement at Greenland had its origins in the original grant application in 1788 by Joseph Leonard, school master, and 148 other Black Loyalists for 7500 acres of land in Clements. In 1789, 50-acre lots were surveyed on the Hessian (Clementsvale) Line as well as the parallel South or Greenland Line. Although some of the lands were probably taken up by black settlers, there does not appear to have been a formal grant from the Crown, and many of the individuals named on the grant application never settled there. Years later, in 1831, the Crown did indeed grant land title to blacks in Clements, known as the Second Division. These grantees included Black Loyalists and freed slaves as well as a second generation. The grantees of 100 acre lots at the west end of the Greenland Road, or the Negro Line as it came to be known, were: Peter and Isaac Ringwood; Peter sen., Peter jun., Samuel, Anthony and Thomas Johnston; Jacob Japan; Francis and Abraham Harrison; Caesar Hawkins, sen. and jun. Beginning in the 1850s, many of Greenland’s people moved to Lynn, Massachusetts and surrounding towns in search of work. Remnants of the community survived until the first half of the 20th century.

The black settlement at Guinea had its origins in the original grant application in 1788, by Joseph Leonard, schoolmaster, and 148 other Black Loyalists for 7500 acres of land in Clements. In 1789, 50-acre lots were surveyed on the Hessian (Clementsvale) Line as well as the parallel South or Greenland Line. Although some of the lands were probably taken up by black settlers, there does not appear to have been a formal grant from the Crown, and many of the individuals named on the grant application never settled there. Years later, in 1831, the Crown did indeed grant land title to blacks in Clements, known as the Second Division. The original black grantees of 100 acre lots at the east end of the Waldeck Line, or Guinea as it came to be known, were Abraham Clements and Peter Johnston sen. Other black families soon purchased parcels of land in the area from whites also named in the grant. Most of Guinea’s blacks were adherents of the Church of England in neighbouring Clementsport. Beginning in the 1850s, many of Guinea’s people moved to Lynn, Massachusetts and surrounding towns in search of work. Remnants of the community survived until the first half of the 20th century. 

The black settlement at Lequille had its origins in the early 1800s. The core of the community was formed by the descendants of four early families. John Prior and his wife Nancy Mumford were Black Loyalists and he was a cooper who worked for members of the Easson family of Lequille. Samuel and Betsey Brothers were also Black Loyalists. Aesop Moses and his wife Judith Runfree were freed slaves (he of prominent Loyalist Frederic Davoue), as were William Ruggles and his wife Rose. William Ruggles was likely a slave of General Timothy Ruggles or one of his sons. The Ruggles family lived at the General’s Bridge. The community grew slowly throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and is still home to the largest black community in the Annapolis-Granville area. Many of the young people have moved to urban centres in Canada

Granville Mountain or Crow Harbour were the names applied to the black settlement that once existed on the crossroads of the North Mountain between Granville Centre and Young’s Cove. Its origins date from the turn of the 19th century, when a number of blacks purchased lots at the back of land originally granted to white settlers more than a generation earlier. Their number included both Black Loyalists and the recently freed slaves of white Loyalists. In May of 1803 Jack Peters and John Moses each bought for £10, 100 acres from Daniel and Elizabeth Wade, parts of the original farm lot #75. In October of 1815, Jack Peters sold 25 acres of his property for £12 10sh to Ichabod Cuff, who, less than two weeks later, married Jack’s daughter, Sarah Peters. In addition to John Moses and his wife, Rebecca Benson, other early founders of the community were John Harris and his wife, Jane Roberts, who married at Granville in August of 1797, Francis Wright and his wife, Elizabeth Middleton, Henry Middleton and his wife Phyllis, and John Kimber and his wife Sylvia. By the middle of the 19th century, the settlement featured a church, where, on September 1st, 1854, a significant event in Black Nova Scotian history took place. Baptist Church elders representing twelve black communities from around the province gathered under the leadership of the charismatic preacher Richard Preston to found the African Baptist Association of Nova Scotia. This would be the high point of the settlement. Beginning in the 1850s, many of Granville Mountain’s people moved to Lynn, Massachusetts in search of work. Remnants of the community survived until the first half of the 20th century.

The earliest black settlement at Phinney Cove/ Hampton can be traced to early purchases of portions of Lots #123, 124, 125, 127, and 128 in Granville Township. Black Loyalists Dempsey and Venus Slaughter and George and Nancy Black bought parts of Lot #128 in 1785 from Solomon and Lucy Farnsworth. And in 1794 John Tallow (Tyler) purchased 150 acres, part of Lot #123 from John and Mary Chute for £10. John Tallow and another black man, Lewis Fowler, were the recently freed slaves of prominent Loyalist families, the de St. Croix’s and the Fowlers. Alexander and Dinah Scarborough were other early residents. Beginning in the 1850s, many of the community’s people moved to Lynn, Massachusetts and surrounding towns in search of work. Remnants of the community survived until the first half of the 20th century.