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The Elliott Clan Genealogy Jim Elliott researched the Elliott name back five generations, then was stymied |
James Neily (Jim) Elliott was an ardent student of the family genealogy on his father's side and spent a great deal of time and effort in researching it with unflagging determination and competence. Shown here is the only record I've had until now of my brother's extensive research into the origins of the Elliott name. He did not reseach the Tyler name (our mother's side). Gam's sister, my Aunt Ebbie, did that at great length, and the results are now with my niece Marian.
I know he wrote more but have been unable to locate it until very recently. A large portion of his research was in the hands of his son, Perry, who died 2 January 2017; and none of that material has yet been found. Now it's evident that Marian has much of Jim's research into the Elliott name, and she recently sent me copies of it. Apparently much of it is correspondence and hand-written notes, and may not all be useful. But I'll examine it all carefully and add here any material that contributes to Elliott family genealogy.
Jim died the last day of December 2001 without having finished his beloved inquiries. We are indebted to him for his recording of Elliott Clan genealogy as far back as he could. His intent was to go back ten generations but he was stymied half way to that goal. The document below is the best record I've found of Jim's dogged rsearch. I called him Imick, the nickname bestowed on him by our older brother Jack, the long-time patriarch of our clan.
If anyone has more about our genealogy, please send it along for possible inclusion here. And, if any younger member of the Clan would like to take over the study of our genealogy on either the Elliott or Tyler side, or both, you will be more than welcome. Please do let me know of your interest.
Bruce Elliott
Here is the entire content of a document entitled Draft as of January 2001 that Jim wrote and gave to me then. He died the last day of that year.
INTRODUCTION
In 1998, I began a limited search for the origins of my family name. I knew, of course, that I got it from my father, Lowell Allison Elliott. He got it from his father and he got it from his father and he got it from his father, on and on. I knew little about the paternal side of the family. My information on the maternal side is extensive since I have many of the books Aunt Ebbie prepared detailing her descent from Adam and Eve and others. I had heard some stories about how these particular Elliotts are descended from the Scots but knew very little more. I decided to do a limited investigation.
I want to go back ten generations. So far, I have traced my name back through five Elliott fathers. My father, Lowell Allison, is a member of Generation 10. His father, Perry Edelbert, is in Generation 9. His father, Isaac Ackerly, is Generation 8. His father, Benjamin, is from Generation 7. His father, John, belongs to Generation 6. I will designate the generation number as a superscript, e.g. John6.
Lowell10 had one brother, Glenn10 [no sisters]. Perry9, Isaac8, and Benjamin7 had numerous brothers and sisters. I have not uncovered reliable evidence showing whether or not John6 had siblings.
We do know that John6 purchased property in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada and married Rachel Bent although the order in which those events occurred is not presently clear. They produced 10 children in 19 years. John6 died intestate in the county. It took three years to settle his estate. His wife Rachel turned that job over to three of their sons. Details about John's life will be reported in a paper titled JOHN ELLIOTT6.
My plan is to write a paper on each of our 10 ancestors traced through the father bearing the name Elliott. I have reliable evidence (birth, census and death records, Sister's photos of gravestones, church baptismal records, etc) of those who came after John6 but nothing about his date and place of birth, parents, etc. As of this writing I am labeling John6 our immigrant ancestor based on information contained in "History of the County of Annapolis" and its Supplement. The history was started by Mr. W.A. Calnek, a retired surveyor, and finished by Mr. A.W. Savary, a retired judge in the Nova Scotia judiciary; it was published in Toronto in 1897. The supplement was authored by Mr Savary and published in Toronto in 1913. Mr. Calnek wrote that John came from Ireland and Mr. Savary sent that biographical sketch, unchanged, to the publisher. Mr. Savary, in the years following 1897, began looking for answers to some questions that arose in his mind during the time he was working on Calnek's manuscript. In 1913, the answers were published in the Supplement. It was here that Mr. Savary said John came from Scotland. I am working to learn why Mr. Savary contradicted Mr. Calnek..
My quest to find John's place and date of birth continues. If anyone reading this has any idea where I might get this information, please contact me at 2120 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21231 or e-mail at jelliott@qis.net or by telephone at 410-558-0158. Thank you. [These contact points are no longer valid as the writer is deceased. Please send information to this site's webmaster.]
NOVA SCOTIA
The Scots named it in 1621The name means New Scotland in Latin. The land the province now occupies in the eastern Canadian maritimes, plus a lot more, was given the name in a charter written in Latin and approved by the Privy Council of Scotland on 29 September 1621. The instigator of the charter was Sir William Alexander, born near Stirling, Scotland, in 1567, knighted in 1609 at the age of 42, and a close associate of the British king, James I (he was crowned in 1603; prior to this he was king of Scotland, James VI). Mr. A.W. Savary quotes Sir William as saying that naming this land New Scotland would encourage Scots to settle there. The charter embodied a plan to facilitate that.
Nova Scotia, a Canadian maritime province, is a peninsula with its long axis running NE and SW for something over four hundred miles; the short axis 50 to 75 miles wide. The peninsula is connected to New Brunswick, another province, by a short and narrow neck near the town of Amherst. Our focus on the Elliott name leads us to its two western counties, Annapolis and King's. The seat of Annapolis County is the town of Annapolis Royal. When you go to Nova Scotia, be sure to head for this town. It sits at the mouth of the Annapolis River which flows through a valley ideally suited for farming and settlement by the county's early English settlers. It was here, in this magnificent valley, that our immigrant ancestor, John Elliott6, founded his homestead in Wilmot township, raised ten children along with Rachel, and farmed.
The Scots ignored the fact that the French had been here since 1604
Let's say you were a Scot in 1621, heard about Sir William's opportunity for a better life in New Scotland, boarded a ship the next year and arrived at Annapolis Basin, a huge, beautiful, sheltered harbor on the northwest shore of New Scotland. You disembarked, got to the town of Annapolis Royal and found the people were speaking French. You picked up a map of the area. It is labeled La Novvelle (sic) France, prepared by Monsieur Lescarbot in 1609. New France? You thought this was New Scotland. Shortly you find out the truth. The French have been here for almost 20 years. They built a fort at Port Royal shortly after their 1604 arrival. But you like the French so you stay and live a happy life, notwithstanding Sir William's proffer.
Other Scots came over and were largely ignored by the French government. The French king's charter, issued in 1604, had called on Lord Demonts to extend the limits of the crown in the lands of La Cadie. The charter is a clear indication of the French government's resolve to establish a New France in North America. Lord Demonts and others mapped western Acadia (the name they finally settled on for what Sir William called Nova Scotia), brought in settlers and generally created a working colony when trouble brewed in 1627. The French had created the "Hundred Associates" company that year to head off Sir William's settlement.
The Scots are ordered out
The following year Sir William's people skirmished with the French, captured some ordnance the French king was sending to Quebec and Acadia (Port Royal) and took possession of the town we know as Annapolis Royal. The winter of 1628-29 killed many of the Scottish inhabitants of Acadia. In 1629, the "noblemen's" war concluded and peace was declared. Its terms had no provision for ceding Port Royal to France. Sir William continued to bolster his plantation through 1630. He was stopped on 10 July 1631 when the king, Charles I, (his father, James I, died in 1625) ordered Sir William (recently promoted to Lord Stirling) to abandon Port Royal and cede any claims Scotland might have on Quebec or Acadia to France. These orders were put into effect when France and Britain signed the Treaty of St Germain in March 1632. Charles I was having financial troubles at the time. Stopping his wars with France and Spain cut his expenses. Incidentally, after he signed, Charles I received the balance due him for the dower of his queen. Lord Stirling was in debt for all he did to promote New Scotland but was soon advanced to Earl of Stirling and Viscount of Canada. He died in 1640 heavily in debt. France's control of Nova Scotia was no longer questioned.
Britain challenges French control
Move ahead 58 years to 1689, the year in which the first of four "French and Indian Wars" started in North America. This was King William's War. It lasted eight years and marked the beginning of Britain's struggle with France for control of North America. The British had been busy with their 13 American colonies, expanding their settlements north and west of the Appalachian Mountains and protecting themselves from the Indians. The French had been busy setting up New France (generally north and east of New England), exploring all the way to New Orleans and forming strong alliances with the Indians.
The British start to take over
The British had not given up on Nova Scotia. During the second of the four wars, Queen Anne's War (1702-13), they captured the fort, named the nearby town Annapolis Royal and concentrated on setting up permanent English settlements along the Annapolis River. A census in 1714 counted 637 people (91 families, most of which had French surnames) living in hamlets near the town. The British subjects within this count were the first significant group of English immigrants to the county, according to A.W. Savary's Supplement, page 58.
The French fight back
King George's War, the third war of the series, kept the two governments busy in North America during the years 1744-48. In our area of interest, the French occupied themselves with attacks in 1744, 45 and 46 on the fort at Annapolis Royal. Each time they besieged it but never won it. In 1749 the governor general of New France announced that the British subjects in the Upper Ohio River Valley, west of the Appalachians, would be removed to the east since they were living in French territory.
The British expel the French from Nova Scotia
In 1755 the English governor of Nova Scotia gave his answer as to who controlled his territory. He physically removed the French who would not pledge loyalty to the British crown. They were shipped to colonies like South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Husbands and older boys were shipped to one place, wives and small children to another, widely separated from the husbands' locations. The expulsion was complete within five years and it led to the second group of English settlers moving to Nova Scotia. Most came from New England in 1760-61. One was Samuel Bent, born in Milton, Massachusetts Bay colony, in 1739. He was 21 years old when he arrived in Annapolis County, bought land in Granville township, married Rachel Ray, and produced 11 children, starting in 1765. His daughter Rachel was their eighth child, born in 1777. At the age of 15, she married John Elliott6.
The New England immigrants were reinforced by arrivals of detached families from Great Britain and Ireland over the next 10 to 20 years. The tradition at this writing is that John Elliott6 was among these "reinforcements". This would make him a "Bluenose", a name contemporary writers assigned to the earliest English settlers of Annapolis County.
France's control in North America ends in 1763
The Seven Years' War, 1756-63, the fourth war in the long series between England and France, settled the question of which government controlled the Upper Ohio River Valley as well as Canada. Were they part of the British Empire or part of the French Empire? On the British side, the war was fought by British regular and colonial units, including a force commanded by Lt Colonel George Washington. The answer came in the words of the Treaty of Paris, signed
10 February 1763. France relinquished all political and military power in North America.
More British come to Nova Scotia
The third, and largest, group of immigrants arrived in Annapolis County in 1782 and later, following the end of fighting in the American Revolution. Most came from New England. The Nova Scotians called them Loyalists. They were loyal to the British crown and were motivated to locate in British territory after learning Parliament had resolved against "further offensive war with the rebels". There were about 500 people in the first shipment. Many more followed. The Bluenoses were not quick to befriend them, according to Savary.
James Neily (Jim) Elliott11
Baltimore, MD 21231
Revised January 2001
Among his many other efforts, Jim wrote many letters and emails to many people and organizations that might help in his research for the Elliott genealogy. He gave me copies of some of those documents. The only one with any pertinent content is the letter he wrote on 4 June 1998 to the Family History Committee of the Kings Historical Society, 37 Cornwallis Street, Kentville, Nova Scotia. Here is an excerpt from that letter:
"I have a photograph of a tombstone in Aylesford reading:
-
ELLIOTT
Issac A.
1825 – 1898
His wives
MARY A.
1825 - 1863
REBECCA B.
1842 - 1924
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