Peter Grant and
Margaret Taylor
From old Scotland to new Scotland
Peter Grant and Margaret Taylor mariage in Halifax, Nova Scotia on 20th January 1814 was the culmination of enormous change for both people. Over the course of the previous few years they had moved from northern Scotland to Nova Scotia, uprooting their place and surroundings. This was a well-trodden path, since the clearances of the highlands after Culloden, more and more Scots found their way over the over the ocean. Nova Scotia wasn't paradise, but it was a place where people could make a life for themselves away from the restrictions and traditions of the old country.
Margaret Taylor's brother was George, Captain George Taylor. He was a few years older and had distinguished himself in the militia, possibly seeing some service away from Scotland. On the 30th July 1810, Captain George Taylor led a party from Banffshire to Aberdeen. The following day the party, including his sister Margaret, took a boat from Aberdeen, arriving in Port Dundas, just outside of the Glasgow city centre by the 6th. The next day they sailed down the River Clyde to Greenock. They spent two days at Greenock and then boarded the Sir Edward Pellew, a small ship of 306 tonnes. They spend a further two days at the anchorage at the Tail of the Bank. On the 12th August 1810, they started westwards for Canada.
Sailing across the Atlantic at that time was not straight forward. Britain was at war with France and there were United States privateers interecepting ships. The voyage across the ocean took roughly 8 weeks. In the his diary, Captain George Tayor recounts one moment of difficulty.
Trouble on the high sea
During the year 1810, the British and French were at war, and one day a French privateer came in sight and began to follow the ship. Being a faster vessel, it was rapidly gaining on them. The Captain ordered all men on deck, and all women and children below, preparatory to making what resistance he could. Taylor asked for five minutes to go below. The Captain declined permission, there was to be no shirking. Taylor said he would be back on deck in good time, he would not be more than five minutes. The Captain replied, "all right, see that you are."
Now Taylor was a captain in the militia in Scotland, and was called Captain Taylor as long as he lived. He went below to put on his uniform, and as he came on deck he said "If I have to fight, I am going to fight in my colours." The Captain said "Good, you have done it. Get up there quick and walk the bridge." He did so, and very soon the French vessel changed course and gave them no further trouble. The sight of one red coat had made them suspicious of surprise.
Miller D A (ed. 2010) Taylors of Wittenburg Colchester County, Nova Scotia Descendants of Captain George Taylor (1777-1850)
Taylorville
After landing in Nova Scotia, Captain Taylor and his party moved inland to the Musquodoboit Valley and founded a settlement there, known as Taylorville. The family stayed in the district for some years and Taylors became significant in Nova Scotian politics.
Marriage of Peter Grant and Margaret Taylor
Peter Grant also emigrated to Nova Scotia from Keith at some point around this time. We do not know if he emigrated with the Taylor group or how he got there, however at some point he became acquainted with Margaret Taylor and proposed marriage.
A notice was issued on the 20th January 1814 as a marriage bond between Peter Grant and Margaret Taylor. The value of the bond was £100, a significant amount (approximately £5000/$8500 CAD in 2023). The bond notice indicates that the marriage was to be celebrated using the form of the Book of Common Prayer. It's not known which church the couple were married in. Margaret's family were Presbyterian, Peter Grant was a Catholic. Looking through the Catholic records from the time, it doesn't appear if they were married there.
The signatories of the marriage bond were Peter Grant, Alexander Taylor and Arthur Brymer. Alexander Taylor was Margaret's brother who moved to Canada with Captain George Taylor. Arthur Brymer was a Scottish landowner newly arrived in Nova Scotia. He was from the parish of Bellie in Moray, close to Keith. He was also a Catholic. He may have stood surety on the marriage bond as a favour to a poorer countryman in need of support.
It's not certain where Margaret and Peter were married, there's no record as a Catholic service at St Peter's, the local church in Halifax. However there is a notice of the baptism of their first child, George in 1814. This was followed three years later by the arrival of Mary in 1817
Peter and Margaret had several more children including Margaret (1820), John (1821), Isabella (1824) and Duncan (1826). Unfortunately Isabella only lived for a year and died in 1825, aged 1. Tragedy came to the family in 1827, when Margaret, Peter's wife died, on the 18th February. There was an announcement in the Arcadian Recorder. Margaret was buried in the St Peter's cemetery
On Sunday last, after a long and painful illness, Margaret, wife of Mr. Peter Grant, Carpenter, aged 40 years, leaving a husband, and six small children to lament the loss of a kind and affectionate wife, and tender parent, She was a native of the Parish of Grange, Banffshire, Scotland.
Acadian Recorder 24 February 1827 Volume 15 Number 8
Life after Margaret's death, two quick marriages
Within the year, Peter Grant married again. This would have been a pragmatic action with the number of young children. Peter's bride was a new widow, Hannah Walsh (nee Guy). She had been in the colony since at least 1822 when she had married a James Walsh from Dublin. Hannah was also a catholic and would have been seen as a suitable arrangement for them both. Peter and Hannah had a son, Peter, born on 23 September 1828.He only survived a week and died on 29 September 1828. There was no cause of death recorded on his burial record, but it is known that the colony had high levels of infant mortality. Worse was to come, as Hannah sucumbed to illness and died in October 1828. She was aged 27.
After Hannah's death, Peter Grant was faced with the same problem of a household of young children and no mother. He married again quickly. This time the marriage was to someone who he may have known from Scotland. Isabella (Isobel) Crosby was born in Keith, the town Peter Grant came from. She had married, in 1818, a man called John Scott. Some point before 1829, Scott died, it's not currently known whether this was in Scotland or Canada and Isabella became a widow. In January 1829, less than three months after the death of Hannah, Peter Grant married again. It appears that Isabella was not a catholic before she married as the records for St Peter's Chapel show that she was received into the Catholic Church on the day of her wedding, the 15th January 1829.
Peter, Isabella and the family lived together in Halifax for the next few years. Peter Grant's carpentry buisness became quite successful and he would have been quite in demand in the growing town. From newspaper clippings over the course of the rest of the century, it seems that two of his sons, George and Duncan, worked with their father as his apprentices first and then in the construction of houses. One son, John took a different path as a Ship's master. Halifax was a major port in the east-coast trade, connecting Britain with ports and colonies in the Carribean. There would have been sigificant opportunities for young men to enter the maritime trade and take the ladder from cadet to master. John Grant obviously entered the trade and appear's to have had an aptitude for it. There are no records of how he started, but unfortunately there is a record of how he died as the Master of the Brigantine Flirt in 1840. His death is recorded in a diary by his friend Joseph Salter.
The Death of John Grant
8th November 1840
On the 8th. my friend Capt. Grant was taken ill, up the river, and came to town on the 9th. I took him immediately to my own lodgings and after a short but painful illness of Country Fever which he bore with a most heroic heart, he paid the debt which we, on earth, are some time or other here or there obliged to pay (on 13th). I was very fond of this young man. He was quite young 18 or 19 years - remarkably small of his age, so much so that persons thought him a little boy, brother of mine, whom I had brought out, and occasionally until they were undeceived, treated him as such. He was a sailor "every inch" and a most daring little fellow, sturdy as a man at 60 and bid fair to be an exception to the general run of Halifax-born ship masters.
I attended on him, until by taking cold, and through excitement, I was laid up myself. Was on my back when he died, and remained so for 12 or 14 days the greater part of the time speechless with sore mouth (salivated) from the quantity of Calomel they "pitched" into me since I cameto the Colony
13th November 1840
Poor Grant - how glad he would have been, if it had pleased God to have spared his life, to have heard him getting the Flirt underweigh -man fashion. I have some feeling, for I shed a bitter tear at his death and still remember him, 'tho he is forgotten here almost already.
The Diary of a Maritimer, 1816-1901: Life and Times of Joseph Salter
Acadian Recorder 17 January 1841 Volume 29 Number 3
Developing Halifax
Peter Grant became an important figure in Halifax during this time. He seems to have been known as a trusted man and trusted carpenter. This was demonstrated in a report about the opening of the Holy Cross cemetery in 1843. 'Peter Grant superintended a number of carpenters, who devoted the day in preparing the frame, or were engaged on other preparatory work.' This graveyard, where the community rallied around to build was also the place Peter buried his third wife, Isabella, about 4 months after the cemetary in December 1843.
From census documentation over the years, Peter Grant's residence was given as Birmingham Street in Halifax. His house is still standing and is part of a heritage area called Schmidtville. He bought a range of sub-divided land from Elizabeth Schmidt the original owner of the land. He is credited with bringing the five-sided Scottish dormer style of windows to the houses, a style also found in Keith and norther Scotland. The surviving houses built by Peter Grant and his family can be found in this inventory. The style of the area contributed to the neighbourhood being names one of the Great Places in Canada in 2017.
In the obituaries for George Grant and Duncan Grant indicate that their father was a well respected man in the community and a member of groups such as the North British Society - a Scottish emmigrants group. He died on the 8th December 1870 and was burried in Holy Cross cemetery, the cemetery he helped to build, next to the grave of his 3rd wife, Isabella.
Developing Halifax
Peter Grant became an important figure in Halifax during this time. He seems to have been known as a trusted man and trusted carpenter. This was demonstrated in a report about the opening of the Holy Cross cemetery in 1843. 'Peter Grant superintended a number of carpenters, who devoted the day in preparing the frame, or were engaged on other preparatory work.' This graveyard, where the community rallied around to build was also the place Peter buried his third wife, Isabella, about 4 months after the cemetary in December 1843.
From census documentation over the years, Peter Grant's residence was given as Birmingham Street in Halifax. His house is still standing and is part of a heritage area called Schmidtville. He bought a range of sub-divided land from Elizabeth Schmidt the original owner of the land. He is credited with bringing the five-sided Scottish dormer style of windows to the houses, a style also found in Keith and norther Scotland. The surviving houses built by Peter Grant and his family can be found in this inventory. The style of the area contributed to the neighbourhood being names one of the Great Places in Canada in 2017.
In the obituaries for George Grant and Duncan Grant indicate that their father was a well respected man in the community and a member of groups such as the North British Society - a Scottish emmigrants group. He died on the 8th December 1870 and was burried in Holy Cross cemetery, the cemetery he helped to build, next to the grave of his 3rd wife, Isabella.
Burial at Holy Cross cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia
In Memory of Peter Grant
A native of Keith Banffshire Scotland
Who died Dec.8th 1870
In the 82th year Of his age
George Grant
His wife Mary Ann
And their children
William & Lauren
The children of Peter and Margaret Grant
As said previously, Duncan and Geogre Grant entered into partnership with their father as house builders and carpenters in the Halifax area. Even though they were well employed, they don't appear to accumulated significant wealth. Halifax and the maritime provinces suffered an economic recession after the 1870s, and it's not known whether the fortune of the Grants were impacted by this. Both George and Duncan married and stayed local to Halifax.
Their sister, Margaret, married Angus Campbell in 1838 and had 2 daughters that lived, and families in Halifax