| Call Number: | MIC-Loyalist FC LFR .W5G5C6 |
| Name: | White, Gideon : 1753-1833. |
| Title: | Collection : 1762-1920. |
| Description: | 5 microfilm reels of textual records (15 vols.) ; 16 mm. |
| Background Information: |
Gideon White was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He and his cousin Edward
Winslow were descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. White was a Plymouth merchant and
had made several trips to both Port Roseway (Shelburne) and Liverpool, Nova Scotia,
where he visited Simeon Perkins just prior to and during the early years of the American
Revolution. By 1779 he was the master of the schooner, Apollo, trading to the
Caribbean, and became a merchant in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1782 he returned
to New York as a captain in the Duke of Cumberland's Regiment. In this capacity he
went to Jamaica to recruit, but as the Revolution was drawing to a close, he returned to
New York where he became a member of the Port Roseway Associates, a group of
refugees who formed an association to organize a settlement at Port Roseway
(Shelburne). By 1784 he had gathered together several disbanded members of his regiment and brought them to Chedabucto Bay where they received land grants. White settled in Shelburne, engaged in trading and in agriculture and received a number of appointments which included: deputy registrar of the Vice-Admiralty Court, justice of the peace for Shelburne County, sheriff, customs collector, justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, major of the 22nd (Shelburne) Battalion of Militia, and member of the House of Assembly for Barrington Township from 1790-1793. He remained in Shelburne as it declined in the late 1780s and continued to reside there after the disastrous fire of 1792 when many others left. He died in Shelburne on 30 September 1833. |
| Contents: |
The Collection contains family, business and official correspondence of the White family
and other individuals connected with them through family or business interests. Included are personal papers such as: bills, receipts, orders, licences, powers of attorney, ships' papers, insurance policies, election papers, newspaper clippings and correspondence; official records kept by Gideon White as magistrate, militia officer, firewarden and tax collector in Shelburne; accounts and records of Gideon White, Miles White, and others who were in business in Shelburne and in Halifax; and diaries, journals and personal accounts of Gideon and Cornelius White and others. Also included is miscellaneous material pertaining to local politics; the South Shore Railway Company and Coastal Railway Company; Nova Scotia Electric Telegraph Company; Seth C. Howes; and the Wall family of Ragged Harbour, Shelburne County. |
| Originals: | The original records are held by the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. |
| Other Numbers: | PANS MG 1, vol. 947-962. |
| Finding Aids: |
A Calendar of the White Collection of Manuscripts in the Public Archives of Nova
Scotia, compiled by Margaret Ells. Halifax: PANS, Publication No. 5, 1940, is
available in print. The copy of the Calendar that accompanies the Loyalist Inventory entry for the Gideon White Collection has been annotated to provide references for documents that were included in the microfilm of the Collection, but not listed in the Calendar as originally published. Researchers are advised to use the annotated copy of the Calendar for complete content information. Relavent sections of the Calendar are found at the beginning of each volume. A microfilm shelf list is available in print. |
| Web Finding Aid Available | |
| Notes: |
The Calendar has been annotated with the word "missing", for items which were not
included in the microfilm of the Collection. A note in the microfilm reel indicating that No. 1561 is missing, is inaccurate; it is located after No. 1577. The dates that are given for item No. 1560 are incorrect. The index to the Calendar does not include document No. 1562 to document No. 1613. |
| 437 |
The Loyalist Collection is located within the Microforms Department at the Harriet Irving Library.
Last update: 2012/12