Our Trailblazing Ancestors - Part 2

Joseph McLellan (1715-1777) and Isabelle Steele (1719-1805)

Joseph B. McLellan & Isabelle Steele

  Robert McLellan  & Janet Nicholson

    Isabella McLellan & John Chisholm

      John Scott Campbell & Janet Chisholm

        John Campbell & Sarah Simmonds

          Flora Ann Campbell Beattie & John William Gamble

            Julia West Gamble & John Thomas Bragg

              Russell M Bragg  & Dorothy M Harrigan

                Me

Great Village, Nova Scotia

As with many of our ancestors, the McLellans were part of the Ulster Scot migration from the area around Londonderry, Northern Ireland to Nova Scotia in 1761 under the sponsorship of Alexander McNutt.  They settled in Londonderry Township, Colchester County, Nova Scotia near the lovely little place called Great Village.  The first to arrive were  the three adult sons who immediately sent back to Ireland for their parents, Joseph and Isabelle to join them.  It is said that Isabelle was so anxious to see her sons that she left the plodding ox cart miles from their destination and ran ahead to meet them.  The 1770 census shows that Joseph and his sons took full advantage of their generous land grants and were quite prosperous only 8 years after their arrival.  In his will, Joseph specifically bequeathed to his grandson the remainder of his wearing apparel that was not used for his burial.  

James Johnson (1719-1798) and Elizabeth Patterson (1727-1776)

James Johnson & Elizabeth Patterson

  Rachel Johnson & James Rogers

    Jane Rogers & John Bragg

      Charles Bragg & Matilda Swallow

        John Thomas Bragg & Julia West Gamble

          Russell M. Bragg & Dorothy M Harrigan

             Me

Grave of Elizabeth Patterson
Robie Street Cemetery
Truro, Nova Scotia

James and Elizabeth emigrated from Ulster in the early 1750s and settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, British North America.  Five years later the French were expelled from Nova Scotia by a vengeful British Government. Great grants of free land was offered to both New Englanders and the Ulster Scots to create a permanent English speaking presence on the former French landholdings.  James, Elizabeth and their nine children were among the fifty families to take up this offer.  This group was known as the Cobequid Planters and they were the original grantees of the area around present day Truro.  The couple had two more children and created a prosperous farm in the lower village.  Elizabeth died in 1776 and James remarried Margaret McRoberts and had three more children.  Last year Nova Scotia celebrated the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the Cobequid Planters.

William Cook (1720-1766) and Sidney Holmes (1730-1812)

William Cook & Sidney Holmes

   John Cook Sr.  & Margaret Berry

    James Cook & Isabella Geddes

      Esther Cook & John Gamble

       John William Gamble & Flora Ann Campbell Beattie

          Julia West Gamble & John Thomas Bragg

            Russell M. Bragg & Dorothy M Harrigan

              Me

      

Grave of Sidney Holmes

William and Sidney were married in Donegal, Ireland and emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1761 with his brother James and the rest of the Ulster Scots.  Settling on a 500 acre grant at Portaupique, on the shores of the mighty Bay of Fundy, the pair added three children to their family of four. They set about working the land already cultivated by the Acadiens before them.  At the time, roads were mere rough tracks and so much of the travel between settlements was done by boat.  On one such trip, about 1766, William’s boat was lost in Cobequid Bay and William was drowned.  Sidney lived on until 1812, having remarried to Matthew Staples, blacksmith to Governor Cornwallis.  

Daniel Teed UEL (1767-1869) and Jerusha Peers (1772-1813)

Daniel Teed & Jerusha Peers

  Hannah Teed & Thomas Swallow

    Matilda Swallow & Charles Bragg

      John Thomas Bragg & Julia West Gamble

        Russell M. Bragg & Dorothy M Harrigan

          Me

Daniel's Signature from a Marriage
Bond for his daughter, Hannah

Both Daniel and Jerusha were young children when the Revolutionary War began.  Their families, remaining loyal to the British Crown were forced to flee for their lives to behind British Lines in Morrisania New York.  There they lived in squalid conditions until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Daniel, toward the end of the war was said to have been a drummer with the Westchester Refugee Regiment of the British Militia.   The reward for loyalty was the promise of free land in Nova Scotia.  Daniel’s family settled in Malagash while Jerusha’s took up a grant at Wallace Bay – known in those days as The Remsheg.  The two married in 1790 at Malagash and went on to raise a family of 11 children.  Many of their descendents can still be found in the eastern part of Cumberland County today.

Robert Berry (1734-1781) and Nancy Noble (1736-abt 1800)

Robert Berry & Nancy Noble 

  Margaret Berry & John Cook

    James Cook & Isabella Geddes

      Esther Cook & John Gamble

        John William Gamble & Flora Ann Campbell Beattie

          Julia West Gamble & John Thomas Bragg

            Russell M. Bragg & Dorothy M Harrigan

              Me

Shortly after their marriage in Northern Ireland,  Robert and Nancy boarded the sailing ship “Hopeful” and sailed to Nova Scotia. By 1770 the census reports that the couple had six children and history tells us that they had three more after that.  Their 500 acre grant brought them prosperity they could not have dreamed of in their little tenant farm in the old country and they build a good life for themselves. Their daughter, Margaret married John Cook of Portaupique.  Robert died in 1781 in Amherst and Nancy followed him some 10 years later.