Prepared by E.L. Eaton in January 1961
Personal Papers, shared, but not published
| The Sheffield family in
Cornwallis was founded by Amos Sheffield, one
of the original grantees, who received Lot No. 4 in the 9th Division,
which would place it in Lower Canard, not far from the small Baptist
Church. The family later acquired land near the head of the
Habitant River, the community later becoming known as Sheffield
Mills. The property known to the Research Branch as the Sheffield
Farm is not so easily traced. The large meadows and winding
brook, which make it desirable for irrigation studies today, no doubt
were much less attractive before it was cleared and ditched. The
dike land along the lower part of the brook was probably allotted
separately. Thus it appears, although surveyed into farm lots, at
least a part of it was shunned by the original grantees and could very
well have been acquired later by Joseph Nesbit. (This supposition was later confirmed. See Cornwallis Land Survey of April 24, 1761. P, 383..."thus leaving a vacancy sixty two rods wide"...in description of Division 14, Lot 5 to Caleb Huntington.) The land bought from Mason Sheffield was certainly in the original 14th Division and appears to have been parts of Lots 3, 4, 5 and 6. These lots extended from the 6-rod highway along the property southward to Canard Street. Lands north of the 6-rod road were laid out as wood lots. No trace has been found of early owners of Lots 3 or 4 and on the Assessment Roll of 1765 the owner of Lot 5 follows the owner of Lot 2, which supports the theory that this swampy land was not "draughted" at the beginning. Lot 5 was originally granted to Caleb Huntington, Lot 6 to "The Heirs of Timothy Hatch". Caleb Huntington soon purchased the Hatch property. In subsequent years "Caleb Huntington the Elder" and his sons "Caleb the Younger" and Ezra bought and sold numerous pieces of timber land and may have acquired Lots 3 and 4. Their name is perpetuated in Huntington Point, site of a summer colony on the Bay of Fundy. When or to whom the Huntington farm lots were sold is not known. The next owner of whom we have a record was the Joseph Nesbit whom we have been seeking. When and from whom Nesbit acquired his land we can only guess, but in 1827 Joseph Nesbit sold the farm to Benjamin DeWolfe, the deed being recorded in Book No. 8, page 205, in the Registry of Deeds. The area so transferred is given as 181 acres. The boundaries were evidently laid out with great accuracy, no reference being made to the original lot numbers, a fact which adds weight to the theory that a fresh allocation of unoccuped land had recently been made. Another unusual feature, these boundaries began "at the south east corner of the Mansion House", and followed a somewhat crooked line, evidently along the brook, northward, crossing the 6-rod highway, to the Gibson Road. The west line from the 6-rod highway south is entirely straight. The Mansion House was within this property and appears to have been just north of the present paved highway, (Canard Street), on the corner of the upland near the dyke along the creek. The land covered by these boundaries was only the east half of what later became the Aaron Sheffield farm. The death of Benjamin DeWolf seems to have taken place soon after buying the land, as a year later, in 1828, we found his executor selling the property to Amos and John Sheffield, Book 8, Page 206, with the measurements of the farm unchanged. This Amos Sheffield is believed to be a son of the first grantee, and would have been 27 years of age at the time he bought this land. His wife was a daughter of Benjamin Belcher, and among their numerous family were John, Benjamin and Aaron. It is not surprising, therefore, to find a deed in 1855 from Benjamin Berlcher Sheffield to Aaron Sheffield, describing the same land, with the exception that the distances are given in rods rather than in chains. However, athough the dimensions are the same the area had somehow increased to 235 acres, which in fact, corresponds to the frontage and acreage of the land occupied by the Sheffields, if the original lot No. 6 is also added. One may speculate why so important a piece of property as an entire farm lot was omitted from a deed. It seems likely that Joseph Nesbit acquired all the land and was one of those persons who carelessly omitted having either deed recorded. By the time he was selling the farm he may have found only the deed for which the exact survey was made, the other having been lost or destroyed. Or he may have acquired the smaller tract as a legacy or through marriage, without receiving a deed. There is a lesson for all of us on the wisdom of reading and understanding any business documents.
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