Ties that bind : land, family and community in Onslow Township, 1760-1830

Abstract

On July 24, 1759, the Governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, ordered the creation of Onslow Township. This township, laid out on the north side of the Bay of Fundy, stretched from east of the mouth of the Chiganoise River along the shore of the Cobequid Basin to beyond the mouth of the North River. From the shoreline, Onslow extended north into the Cobequid Mountains and formed a roughly twelve square mile plot of land. The physical reality of Onslow was fairly easy to establish; the human dimension would take much longer.

The land contained within this corporate space, defined as Onslow, functioned on a number of levels for both the community and the families that eventually settled in the township. Land defined the community, at times acted as a commodity of exchange, and was important in obtaining and maintaining status. In modern terms, land provided Onslow families with subsistence, a saleable product, collateral, old age security, and trust funds. Land drew settlers to the township and allowed successive generations of families to remain. The importance of land in eighteenth and nineteenth century Onslow made its conveyance from parents to children an emotionally charged and contentious issue. The records surrounding land transactions reflect Onslow's communal and familial relationships. Land had the power to pull community and family members together or to tear them apart. The investigation of Onslow landholding provides a window through which this study of community and family in Planter Nova Scotia takes place.