Easson family fonds

1734-1894, 1924

23 cm of textual records
4 maps
3 photographs

John Easson (1715-1790), master artificer, was commissioned by the Board of Ordinance in London and sent to serve in Annapolis Royal in 1737. He received lands and a mill which he operated for grist and lumber. He also worked with Dyson and Company, merchants of Annapolis Royal, and later became a partner with the company. He married Avis Stewart, 27 January 1741, and they had four children. Their son David (1748-1790) married Elizabeth Fisher (ca. 1750-1841) and they had eight children.

Fonds consists of records documenting business and personal activities of four generations of the Easson family. Fonds contains correspondence, invoices, receipts, account statements, promissory notes, land conveyances, bills of exchange, licences, survey plans, and other material relating to commercial transactions between Annapolis Royal, New England, Halifax, and Louisbourg; shipping in the 1700s including an incident involving a vessel at Tatamagouche; relations between the French and the Mi'kmaq; mill-work; maintenance of aboiteaux and dykes; local government; and social life and customs of Annapolis Royal. Family members represented include John Easson (1715-1790); son David (1748-1790) and his wife Elizabeth (ca.1750-1841); three of their eight children: David (1773-1812) and David's wife Zeruiah (ca.1790-1845), Thomas (1784-ca.1862), and Alexander (1786-1862); and three of Alexander's children: Deborah (1816-1888), Caroline (1822-1885), and David Stuart Easson (1823-1883). Also includes records of Thomas Prior, a freed slave, who was a neighbour of David Easson (1773-1812).

Notes:

Donated by David J.C. Nicholl of Hubbards, N.S.

Fonds organized chronologically following family lines.

File list available.
Click to view Easson MG 1 vol. 3478 A
Click to view Easson MG 1 vol. 3478 B

For futher information on the Easson family genealogy, see W.A. Calnek, History of the County of Annapolis and MG 1, vol. 3478, file no. A/1.

Retrieval Code:
MG 1, vol. 3478

Easson-Hoyt collection

1734-1933 [predominant 1749-1877]

10 cm of textual records
8 maps

Jesse (Easson) Hoyt began his career as a telegraphist, becoming in 1860, Nova Scotia superintendent of the American Telegraph Company Limited. In 1865 Hoyt was appointed the first 'general agent' of the Acadia Coal Company Limited at Stellarton, which position he held until 1879. In February 1865 he married Clara Jane Cogswell (1845-1922) daughter of Winckworth Allen and Caroline Elizabeth (Barnaby) Cogswell. He died 30 April 1881 in Dartmouth, NS.

Collection consists of manuscript documents (correspondence, indentures, maps, etc.) of John Easson (d. 1795) of Annapolis Royal and his descendants; particularly, Jesse Hoyt (1835-1881), son of James Frederick Hoyt and his wife, Euphemia Avis Stewart Easson. Mrs. Hoyt was a great-granddaughter of John Easson.

Notes:

Donated by Mary D. Lemak in 1987.

Collection organized chronologically following family lines.

File list available.
Click to view Hoyt MG 1 vol. 2166 H

For futher information on the Easson family genealogy, see W.A. Calnek, History of the County of Annapolis and MG 1, vol. 3478, file no. A/1. For information on Hoyt's career in the coal-mining industry, see James M. Cameron, The Pictonian Colliers, pp. 48-50.

Retrieval Code:

MG 1, vol. 2166