central new brunswick welsh society ......central new brunswick welsh society february 2016...

CENTRAL NEW BRUNSWICK WELSH SOCIETY

FEBRUARY 2016 NEWSLETTER

Entertainment: The Doucet Family

We are pleased to be holding our St. David’s Day dinner at the Ramada in Lower St. Mary’s. Over the past couple of years attendance at our events has been declining. The Ramada is ‘in town’ and should make it easier for the many members who have found it increasingly difficult to attend at our former location. We are hoping that the new venue will encourage attendance. Looking forward to seeing you all there! You don’t need to be a member to attend!

ST. DAVID’S DAY CELEBRATION Dathlu Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant

When: March 1st, 2016

Please come to the Flag-raising at City Hall at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, March 1st. And then join us for dinner on March 1st: Time: 5:00 for socializing; 5:30 for a buffet dinner Where: Ramada Hotel

580 Riverside Drive Lower St. Mary’s, Fredericton

$22/person

Bring your friends, neighbours and family!

NEW/NEWYDD!!!

AN OLD-FASHIONED WINTER IN CARDIGAN, NEW

BRUNSWICK, 1800’S??



Contact Janet Thomas for more information – [email protected] or through our Facebook page.

March 1, 2016 – 11:00 at Fredericton City Hall, Flag raising: Dinner at the Ramada Hotel, Lower St. Mary’s April 30, 2016 – North Side Heritage Fair, Kinscentre, School Street, Devon May 23, 2016 – 7:00 Annual General Meeting, St. John’s Anglican Church Hall, Main Street June 12, 2016 – 7:00 Founder’s Day Church Service, Welsh Chapel, Cardigan followed by shared lunch October 2, 2016 – 3:00 Thanksgiving Day Church Service, Welsh Chapel, Cardigan followed by shared potluck supper

From:

THE HEADQUARTERS November 26, 1856 edition

mailto:[email protected]



REV. EDWIN JACOB, Doctor Divinity Landowner in Cardigan, Hamtown, Woodlands and Tay Creek

Reverend Dr. Jacob is interesting because of his connection to the Cardigan settlement and surrounding communities. Edwin Jacob was born in 1793 in Gloucester, England which made him a contemporary of many of the Welsh settlers in Cardigan, NB. Although little is known about his family, he was apparently from a socially prominent family as he was educated at Oxford where he earned both a

Bachelor and a Masters degree. He was ordained as a Minister and subsequently was awarded a Doctor of Divinity.

His friend, Sir Howard Douglas, Lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick recommended him for the position of Vice-president and Principal of King’s College, Fredericton, when it received a royal charter in 1829. He was also appointed the Chair of Divinity.

Edwin Jacob arrived in the colony with his young family on October 11, 1829 and took up residence in Fredericton. In addition to his college duties he served as missionary to the parish of St. Mary’s where he met the Welsh settlers in Cardigan. Indeed, the parish records of St. Mary’s parish identify Reverend Dr. Jacob as the minister who presided over many baptisms, confirmations and funerals.

His academic career with King’s College was fraught with conflict with those who were trying to sever the ties of the College with the Anglican Church and to transform the college to the University of New Brunswick. In 1859 he was removed as Principal of the College and upon the creation of UNB he was demoted to Professor of Classics. In 1861 his conflict with the university escalated to a point that he was forcibly removed from the university premises permanently. However, his legacy was lasting, having instituted the first Encaenia. Today, a chapel in the Old Arts Building is named for Reverend Dr. Jacob.

Dr. Jacob and his wife, Mary Pattenson, had six sons and two daughters. Two of his sons died before they reached adulthood. His eldest son, Edwin J. Jacob, became a lawyer but died in his mid-30’s, having never married. His son John Rice became a medical doctor, initially practicing in Carleton County and then returning to the Fredericton area upon the breakdown of his marriage. Neither of John Rice’s daughters survived him. Albert Henry farmed some of his father’s land but then moved to the United States where he lived out his life. His wife, Jane, was a Cardigan girl, daughter of Thomas and Mary Jones (both born in Wales). George Arthur farmed his father’s land in Woodlands until the early 1870’s. In 1873, at 43 years of age, he married Jane Arnold and then moved to the United States where he disappears from public records.



Edwin had two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth Frances Antoinetta . When his son Edwin pre-deceased him, he willed parcels of his land to all his children, giving Elizabeth inheritance rights to the land that he left to her other siblings should they not have surviving children. Elizabeth was having none of that, however. In 1869, following the death of her father, she sold her land in Cardigan and her interests as her father’s heir to John James Fraser of Fredericton, who was a lawyer, judge, Premier and Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. She moved to Boston, Massachusetts where she married late in life and died in 1911. Mary Namaria lived in Fredericton for most of her adult life. She was a school teacher and the first female deaconess of the Anglican Church of Canada, well known for her service to the poor. She ultimately acquired all of her father’s land in Hamtown, Cardigan and Tay Creek from her siblings which she sold in partnership with John Fraser. She died in December, 1904, reportedly following a fall from a snowbank, although her death certificate says that she died of old age.

Edwin Jacob acquired significant land holdings in the Cardigan area. Mary Jacob and John Fraser disposed of the land gradually over a number of years. The maps below indicate the land owned by Edwin Jacob and its sale, where records could be found.

Tay Creek



Cardigan

Hamtown



Reverend Dr. Jacob greatly respected his neighbours in Cardigan and was happy to promote settlement in the Cardigan area. In the 1850 Report on the Agricultural Capabilities of the Province of New he wrote:

Reverend Dr. Edwin Jacob retired to Mapledown, his farm in Cardigan, in 1861 where he died on May 31, 1868 at 74 years of age. He is buried in the cemetery at St. John’s Anglican Church on Main Street in Nashwaaksis with his wife and some of his children.

The Cardigan settlers, with their distinguished neighbour, had come a long way from the destitute immigrants about whom the September 28 edition of the Royal Gazette wrote that ‘House room, too, would be difficult to procure – few persons, however willing to assist the distressed, would like to admit families whose habits are so different from their own, into their houses.’

2016 Dues: $25 per family, $15 per individual. the photocopying and mailing of our bulletins and newsletters, our post office box and our St. David’s Day and Christmas celebrations. We have been subsidizing

the dinners for these two events in order to keep the costs down. Send your dues to: P. O. Box 421, Station A, Fredericton, NB E3B 4Z9. Thanks to those who have already paid their 2016 dues!

central new brunswick welsh society ......central new brunswick welsh society february 2016...

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