Prepared by E.L. Eaton in
January 1961
Personal Papers, shared, but not published
Personal Papers, shared, but not published
| Among the long list of
English grantees in Cornwallis, so distinctly
French a name as Comte or Le Comte is conspicuous. The Channel
Islands had long been English possessions and Benjamin Le Comte is said
to have been one of those many energetic Jersey Island natives who
became active participants in the development of the Atlantic
fisheries. At the time of the French expulsion he appears to have
been a merchant in Halifax who quickly saw a business opportunity in
gathering up cattle left behind by the Acadians. It is not
surprising, therefore, that he was also among those to seek and secure
a draught of new land. His allocation was Lot Seven in the
Twelfth Division, a 44-acre farm lot with the usual dyke and woodland,
making up one share of 666-2/3 acres. Like so many persons of
similar tastes, talents and background in our own day, he was not
personally attracted by the strenuous physical tasks associated with
pioneer farming. His name appears on the 1765 assessment roll,
but by 1774 he seems to have decided the speculation had gone long
enough and in Book 1, page 181, we find him selling "all lots divided
and undivided" to Jonathan Shearman for £50. Colonel Shearman may have been a more astute business man or farm land may have increased in value, or perhaps some of both, but in any case the part of the property north of the highway became the property of Reverend Edward Manning in 1807, for £170. This is recorded in Book 5, page 260, but was not entered until 1812. It was carefully measured as 56 acres 20 rods. Here the Registry of Deeds leaves off temporarily and family history takes on. Edward Manning had no sons, but the youngest of three daughters, Mary, was married in 1834 to Peter Carruthers of Dumfries, Scotland. Edward Manning died in 1851 at the ripe age of 84, and the farm became known as Carruthers property. Walter Manning Carruthers, son of Peter, soon sold the farm to Arthur H. Dickie, who lived there for half a century. After brief possession by Perly J. Daniels, the property was divided, Charles A. Eaves becoming the owner of the dwelling house and a small portion of the land, the remainder passing into the hands of Ernest L. Eaton, who lived on the next farm east, a direct descendant of the John Eaton who bought the Tupper grant from Jonathan Shearman in 1812 as recorded in Book 5, page 272. Edward Manning's purchase of the property was evidently a personal one as the first Baptist parsonage was on the present site of Levi Borden's tenant house, known then as Salem Cottage, and previously used as a Presbyterian manse. No record exists of the exact age of the present dwelling of Charles A. Eaves. However, a comparison of other property prices and the general type of architecture make likely that Reverand Edward Manning built the house soon after he acquired the land in 1807. He had been marrried in 1801 and his youngest child was born in 1805. Mr. Manning had become pastor of the New Light Congregational Church, on the site of the cemetery at Jaw Bone Corner, in 1795. In 1798 he travelled to Annapolis for immersion at the hands of Rev. Thomas Handly Chipman. By 1807 the differences between himself and his flock reached such a point that he withdrew from the church with eight followers, four men and four women including Mrs. Manning, and conducted services in the red brick school just east of the corner on the road to Lower Canard. By 1809 the splinter group had become strong enough to erect a church of its own on the Parade at Upper Canard, site of the present Baptist Church, and Manning was the first pastor. It can be reasonably assumed, therefore, that the Manning house was probably erected between 1807 and 1809.
|