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RICHARD OLIVER to Granville
in 1774 - a Yorkshire Settler
By Ina Oliver
The Yorkshire Settlers were a
group of people who came to Nova Scotia in 1774-1775 from Yorkshire, England.
They came from an area forty miles west of Scarborough and south of the North
Yorkshire Moors… an area inhabited by the Vikings, the Saxons, the Normans
and the Romans. All their villages appeared in the Doomsday Book in 1086. Most
of the settlers were farmers and they appear to have been educated, as they
signed documents and built schools and churches.
It is interesting to note that
the most common reason given on the ship passenger lists for leaving England
was "seeks better employment". Reasons given by some of the settlers
were: "farm being over-rented" (John Robinson), "rents having
been raised" (Robert Wilson), "on account of high cost of
provisions" (John Jacques), and "farmer turned off his farm, it being
made into a larger one" (William Gilliatt).
The thirteen families who came
from the Yorkshire area and settled in Annapolis County were: Bath, Clark,
Gilliatt, Halliday, Hawkesworth, Hudson, Jacques, Jefferson, Mills, Milner,
Oliver, Robinson, L. Wilson, and R. Wilson. (Books on all these families have
been published and are available at our shop in the O'Dell House Museum.)
The Oliver family came from the
village of Weaverthorpe. Richard Oliver, the ancestor, was a farmer and came to
Nova Scotia at the age of 19, on the "Thomas and William" or
"Prince George" (his name appeared on both passenger lists), while
his family remained in England. Richard Oliver married Christianna Halliday in
1781. Christianna and her family had been passengers to Nova Scotia on the same
ship as Richard.
Descendants of the Olivers and
Hallidays are mostly located in the area of the township known for many years
as the "Bay Shore", stretching from Young's Cove in the east to
DeLaps's Cove in the west, including Parker's Cove, Hillsburn and Litchfield.
According to Ian Lawrence's research, virtually everyone born in these villages
after 1950 can claim descent from the Olivers and the Hallidays.
Area families who are in some way
related to the descendants of Richard Oliver include the names Armstrong,
Anderson, Atwell, Baltzor, Bent, Chute, Clayton, Corkum, Daniels, Everett,
Feener, Ford, Goss, Graham, Gregory, Guest, Hamilton, Lewis, Longmire, Parker,
Rowter, Sarty, and Vidito, just to mention a few.
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