The Heysons: A ‘Foreign Protestant’ of Lunenburg Township, 1753-1820

Kenneth S. Paulsen

Nova Scotia Historical Review 15:2 (December 1995)

The Heysons[1] of Mahone Bay in Lunenburg Township, Nova Scotia, were a typical German farm family in that new community. They were among the 1600 “foreign Protestant” settlers who were relocated from Halifax to Lunenburg in 1753 when the latter settlement was founded by decision of the British Government. The Heyson family quickly established themselves at nearby Mahone Bay, where Johann Friedrich Heÿson received his initial grant of a thirty-acre lot. They Heysons remained at Mahone Bay where they became one of the prominent local farm families.

In the 1750s the British Crown was recruiting settlers from the German states and principalities to come to Nova Scotia as agricultural settlers. The vast majority of these “foreign Protestants” claimed to be farmers, which was consistent with British recruitment objectives and with data information entered on the passengers lists. Friedrich Heÿson was one of these farmers, but like many of these intending settlers he was not a farmer by profession; instead, and according to the parish records at Hering, Kreis Otzberg, in the Kingdom of the Palatinate, he was a stocking weaver.[2] Like many others, however, he stated that he was a farmer, or that his intention was to become one upon immigration to Nova Scotia. Heÿson, along with the ‘real’ farmers, the artisans and those claiming to be farmers, was not doubt taking advantage of the promise of free land, despite the perceived and unperceived hardships that relocation to a new, forested and remote colony would bring.

Johann Friedrich Heÿson was probably born at Wenings in the Grafschaft Isenburg, about December 1708,[3] the son of Johannes Heÿson, a cloth-maker (Tuchmacher) and citizen of that village.[4] It is not known when Friedrich moved to Hering in the Palatinate; he was there, however, by 17 December 1733 when he married Anna Catherina Junckerin, the daughter of Casper Juncker, an artillery-man (Geschützmeister) at the nearby small fortress of Otzberg.[5]

Between 1735 and 1750, the Heÿsons had five children—Anna Catherina, Johann Philip, Anna Elisabetha Veronica, Anna Elisabeth and Eva Margaretha—and adopted a sixth, Johannes.[6] When the family left Hering in 1751, however it consisted of six people rather than eight. The passenger list for the Murdoch indicates the Friedrich Heÿson was indebted in Dutch florins for FL.212.12.8 and a cash loan of Fl.12.0.0. His fare was for three full freights, which covered him, his wife and two children; two children thus came over free.[7] Children four years and younger were not charged. Eva Margaretha was under four, but the evidence indicates that she did not accompany her parents to Nova Scotia, nor did the adopted son immigrate; instead, they either stayed in Europe or had died as infants. The only explanation left is that the two youngest daughters—Anna Elisabetha Veronica and Anna Elisabetha were treated as non-paying freights, despite their ages. Of the Heÿson children who did arrive in Nova Scotia, it is clear that Johann Philip and two of his sisters came to Halifax, although confusing and contradictory evidence indicates that all three sisters were there. The confusion lies in the Halifax victualling list of August to October 1752 and the similarity of the two sisters’ given names. Five Heÿsons rather than six appear on this list; and there is one Anna Elisabetha, rather than two. By the time the Heysons went to Lunenburg, the eldest daughter had married and the two Anna Elisabethas appear as Anna Elisabetha and Anna Veronica on later victualling lists, therefore establishing proof that three Heÿson daughters indeed came to Nova Scotia.[8]

In 1753, after almost two years in Halifax, the “foreign Protestants” were taken to Merligueche to found the new settlement of Lunenburg. Upon arrival at the site, the town plot was surveyed and lots granted to the settlers; garden and thirty-acre farm lots were also laid out and distributed. Johann Friedrich Heÿson received a town lot in Strasburger’s Division, Lot C-11, and a thirty-acre farm lot at Mahone Bay, Range C, Number 10.[9] The family did not immediately move to Mahone Bay, however; the “Return of Divisions” for Lunenburg in July 1754 indicates that they were still resident in Strasburger’s Division and that their lot was improved with a house.[10] The most likely explanation for their remaining in town was that like many other families, the Heysons lived there while they cleared land elsewhere for cultivation and for a dwelling. The Heyson family probably moved to their thirty-acre lot in 1754 or 1755, once they had sufficiently developed the land for habitation.

Although the Heysons and many other families gradually shifted from town life to their farm lots and to cultivation of the land, the vast majority of the “foreign Protestants” remained on the victualling lists until the government cut them off in 1758. The dependence on crown ‘hand-outs’ was in large part due to the continuing fear of raids from the Mi’kmaq, who attacked outlying farms and islands and killed settlers in 1755, 1757 and 1758. These sporadic and deadly raids greatly alarmed the new settlers and sent many of them fleeing into Lunenburg or to the blockhouses constructed on the ranges for their protection. The external threat to the community ended only with the surrender of the French at Louisbourg in 1758 and at Québec the following year.[11]

While in Halifax, Friedrich Heÿson’s eldest child and daughter, Anna Catherina, was married on 1 December 1752[12] to Johann Adam Linck or Ling, a mason from Hesse. After their removal to Lunenburg, Linck appears on the “Return of Divisions” with the notation “soldier”; he resided with his wife in Rudolf’s Division, Lot F-6, with a house and garden.[13] The Linck family is mentioned in various civil records of Lunenburg during the 1750s, but disappears from the community—and most likely the province—sometime after September 1757. The “Registry of 30 Acre Farm Lotts” in 1760 stated that Adam Linck had owned Common Range Lot A-7 but lost it due to his absence from the community.

The disappearance of a family such as the Lincks was not an uncommon occurrence; many left Lunenburg or other frontier settlements, preferring more developed areas to the uncertainties of life in a new community. The Linck case, however, is further complicated by Adam Linck’s military enlistment, which apparently occurred about the time of his removal from Halifax to Lunenburg in 1753. He may therefore have been transferred out of the province with his regiment. In any case, Adam Linck, his wife Anna Catherina Heyson and their two children disappeared completely from Lunenburg.

From 1760 the township became reasonably prosperous, particularly once local farmers began selling their excess produce, lumber and cordwood to Halifax. Lunenburg had an economy based upon subsistence farming, as indicated by statistics in the 1770 census. These statistics also indicate that the community was principally based upon agriculture. There is very little evidence at this time that Lunenburgers were interested in the commercial fishery; indeed, of 298 households enumerated in the township, only two showed any fishing activity whatever.[14] However, it is highly probable that Lunenburgers, including the Heysons, engaged in occasional fishing and the gathering of mollusks for household consumption.

In the early 1760s the crown granted additional 300-acre lots to all those willing to pay the nominal surveying fee. By granting these lots, the government was fulfilling its promise to provide a fifty-acre grant to every head of household. Together with the original town, garden and thirty-acre grants, this allotment more than fulfilled the crown’s obligation to provide the “foreign Protestants” with land. By the 1760s as well, many sons of original settlers became eligible to receive grants and to hold land in their own right. Johann Friedrich Heÿson and his son each received a 300-acre grant in these lotteries.

By the time on the 1770 census Friedrich Heÿson and his wife were living alone. The census does not record the acreage owned or cleared by each household head, but nevertheless gives a picture of the economic well-being of the community and of each family. Friedrich Heÿson owned enough livestock to satisfy his and his wife’s needs: one ox/bull, one cow, one “young neat cattle” and one swine. His farm, in the previous year, had produced ten bushels of rye, one of peas, ten of barley and five of oats.[15] By 1770 Lunenburg was a fairly well established and stable community, and the statistics for Friedrich Heÿson place him above average in relationship to his neighbours, when variables such as family size are taken into account—even though his farm produced less grain than average.

1767 Aggregate Census and 1770 Nominal Census with Household Examples[16]

Name[17]	No.	Oxen/ horses[18]	Cows	Young cattle[19]	Sheep	Swine	Rye bu.	Pease bu.	Barley bu.	Oats bu.
1767 totals	1468	262	610	527	224	443	3486	683	5315	2990
families	c. 295
1767 average	5	0.9	2	1.8	0.75	1.5	11.8	2.3	18	10.1
1770 totals	1493	312	631	486	108	533	2537	483	4826	3188
families	298
1770 average	5	1	2.1	1.6	0.4	1.8	8.5	1.6	16.2	10.7
Eisenhauer, Adam	4	2	3	-	-	4	20	5	50	25
Emoneau, Frederic	5	4	4	3	8	4	30	8	50	30
Heyson, Friedrich	2	1	1	1	-	1	10	1	10	5
Heyson, Philip	6	2	2	2	-	2	10	4	12	4
Hiltz, Daniel	6	2	2	1	-	3	10	1	10	10
Kedy, William	2	-	-	-	-	-	--	-	--	--
Kraus, Jacob	9	2	3	3	-	3	20	6	30	20
Pennell, Matthew	5	2	6	6	-	3	6	-	20	10
Ramigen, Conrad	6	2	2	4	-	3	20	3	40	10
Rothenhauser,Phil.	5	4	3	1	8	2	10	3	20	10
Veinot, Jacques	4	2	3	1	-	1	20	8	10	10
Veinot, Christophe	5	2	4	2	-	1	20	8	10	10
Wambold, Peter	2	2	3	3	-	3	20	5	40	20
Weynacht, John	3	-	2	1	-	1	2	1	10	15
Zwicker, Peter, Sr.	4	2	3	3	-	3	15	2	20	5
Zwicker, Peter, Jr.	7	2	2	1	-	2	10	3	16	4

A comparison of Lunenburg’s agricultural production with that of other similar communities in Nova Scotia or British North America is difficult but possible. The average farmer in Lunenburg, based upon the 1770 census, produced about 35 bushels of grain per household in 1769 and maintained 2.1 cows, 1.6 neat cattle, 0.4 sheep and 1.8 pigs. Based upon Bettye Pruitt’s estimates for colonial Massachusetts, many of Lunenburg’s households were either self-sufficient or close to it. Pruitt has estimated that the average family in Massachusetts—based upon population figures from the 1764 poll tax and the minimum requirements for military provisioning in the eighteenth century required about sixteen to twenty bushels of grain per year for a household of four to cover the most basic human needs, with an additional ten bushels per year for livestock maintenance.[20] In September 1777 the Reverend Ezra Stiles, residing then in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, wrote in diary that “there may be 150 Th[ousand] Famys in N. England consuming 30 Bush. Each annually for the p[eo]ple & Cattle.”[21] The average Lunenburg household contained five people and produced 39.9 bushels of grain (rye, barley and oats).[22] At roughly four to five bushels per capita, a family of five in Lunenburg was doing reasonably well at almost forty bushels per year on average. The average household production of grain in Lunenburg thus comes close to Stiles’s eighteenth-century estimate for per capita grain consumption and Pruitt’s twentieth-century estimate for the late colonial period.

Friedrich Heÿson remained at Mahone Bay until his death in June 1792. His wife Anna Catherina had died of a stroke ten years previously in April 1782.[23] In his will, dated 11 April 1789, Heÿson bequeathed half his 300-acre lot at Second Division, Letter G, Number 2 to his son-in-law Heinrich Koch, and the other half to his eldest grandson and namesake, Johann Friedrich Heyson.[24] His son Philip received his share in life and had considerable landholdings of his own. The manner in which Friedrich Heÿson conveyed land to his heirs was common among the “foreign Protestants.” The provisions of his will indicate that partible inheritance was practiced in Lunenburg as was common in the Rheinland.[25] Many settlers sold or gave all their land to their heirs before death, while some left it to their heirs only after death.

The transferal of this property by a will written in 1789 contradicts the 1784 township grant, which does not list Friedrich Heÿson as a property owner. The 300-acre lot described in the will was, however, the same one which he had drawn in the 1763 lottery. Two possibilities exist for this oversight: perhaps Heÿson was inadvertently omitted from the grant; or his son held nominal ownership of the property. The first is more likely, since most of Philip’s land in the 1784 township grant can be accounted for. In 1789, Friedrich resided at Mahone Bay, Lot C-10, which by then had been transferred to his son Philip as a gift in 1782.[26] The poll tax for 1792 indirectly confirms the transferal and indicates that Heÿson Sr. no longer actively farmed, because the tax assessment was for only one shilling.[27] Such a levy was normally paid by persons who were single and not in possession of livestock and/or other property.

While Anna Catherina and her husband Adam Linck disappeared from the Lunenburg records before 1760, the remaining three children of Johann Friedrich and Anna Catherina Heÿson stayed in Lunenburg and married local people. Anna Elisabetha Veronica was the first to wed, on 2 January 1759.[28] She married Heinrich (Henry) Koch, who became a successful sawmiller after his father and ultimately the largest landowner in Lunenburg; at the time of the township grant in 1784, he held 2,000 acres. Koch had come to Nova Scotia with his parents in 1750 on the Ann, from Weldenback, Kreis Höchstenbach, Grafschaft Sayn.

By the time of the 1760 registry of town lots and thirty-acre farm lots, Henry Koch had acquires three house lots and two farm lots at South Range B. During the 1760s and 1770s, he expanded his holdings by acquiring several thirty-acre farm lots and 300-acre lots; he also acquired land through inheritance from his father-in-law. The 1770 census is a good indication that Koch was well established in Lunenburg. The return states that he owned a grist mill as well as a sawmill, and his activities as a miller suggest that he was not an active farmer: the only produce recorded for the Koch family on the census was six bushels of peas, which would not necessarily require his attention to cultivate, but likely that of his wife.[29] As a miller showing little agricultural production, Koch and his family would be dependent on an exchange of labour or upon the cash income of the mill to obtain what was needed in the way of food stuffs. The census also indicated that Koch owned six oxen or bulls, which may have been used in connection with his sawmill operations.

Henry Koch probably resided within the town of Lunenburg and because of his wealth perhaps socialized among the local elite. The records and poll taxes refer to him as either a “saw miller,” an “esquire” or a “gentleman”; the latter designations may be seen as an indication of status within the community. Further evidence that the Koch family were among the ‘upwardly mobile’ was the marriage of Anna Elizabeth Koch, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth, to John Christopher Rudolf, the son of Leonard Christopher Rudolf, a high-ranking government official in Lunenburg.

The youngest daughter of Friedrich and Anna Catherina Heÿson, Anna Elizabetha, was married on 25 November 1766 to Wilhelm Gorkum, who came from Westhofen, in the Palatinate;[30] he was the son of Wilhelm and Sophia Catherine Gorkum. The Gorkum connection with Heyson family was brief. William and Elizabetha had only one child, a son born in November 1767[31] –who probably died shortly thereafter, as he never again appears in the local records. Between 1767 and her death in 1775, Elizabetha had no other children but may, of course, have had pregnancies which never came to term.

Johann Philip Heyson was the only son of Friedrich and Anna Catherina Heÿson. He was born on 20 October 1737 at Hering and married Maria Magdalena Zwicker at Lunenburg on 6 March 1759.[32] Maria Magdalena, a native of Zeiskam in the Palatinate was born 4 August 1739, one of five children of Peter and Maria Magdalena Zwicker.[33] The family came to Nova Scotia in 1752. They were neighbours of the Heysons at Mahone Bay, settling on an adjacent lot. The Zwicker family became prominent, producing politicians and boat builders in later generations; the family also became wide-spread throughout Nova Scotia, Canada and the United States. Maria Magdalena’s brothers were all substantial landowners and played prominent roles in the community. Peter, for example, became a tavern/innkeeper at Mahone Bay and along with his brothers Georg and Melchior, a sawmiller.

Philip Hesyon and his future brother-in-law, Peter Zwicker Jr., were granted in 1755 a sixty-acre tract of land adjacent to properties at Oakland owned by Henry Becker and Benjamin Green.[34] The joint Heyson-Zwicker grant was equally divided and recorded in the 1760 registry as two unspecified thirty-acre lots.[35] This sixty-acre tract later became a bone of contention, when in November 1774 Philip Heyson annexed a portion of Zwicker’s land; the dispute was settled only when Zwicker petitioned Governor Francis Legge for redress. The case was handled by the local magistrates, who recommended a court settlement.[36]

In contrast with this dispute, Philip Heyson also received a crown grant to sixty acres at Oakland, again adjacent to Benjamin Green. This grant was dated February 1773 and may actually be the same sixty acres allotted in 1755. The 1773 grant, when accompanied by a separately documented map, shows a lot of sixty acres for Heyson and one for 69 acres for Zwicker.[37] The documentary evidence regarding the Heyson and Zwicker land at Oakland is unclear and contradictory in terms of acreage.

Philip Heyson, along with William and Alexander Kedy, and Peter, George and Melchior Zwicker, was among the largest landowners in the Mahone Bay area of the township. During the 1760s, Philip Heyson started to accumulate land beyond his grant at Oakland. He purchased a thirty-acre farm lot in Mahone Bay and, as previously noted, acquired a 300-acre lot in the land lotteries of 1763/64. Later, in the 1770s, Philip bought ten of the 32 lots in the Clearland Ranges, as well as various parcels in Mahone Bay. When Joshua Mauger sold his mill at Mushamush (Mahone Bay) to George Zwicker, for example, Philip bought several pieces of the mill land when Zwicker divided it.

The 1770 census gives us the first clear indication of Philip Heyson’s economic well-being as a farmer. His agricultural production of the previous year was similar to that of his father, but he owned twice the livestock—which in turn placed him above average for the number of oxen, neat cattle and swine, and at average for cows. In 1770 the Philip Heyson family was young and consisted of six people, four of whom were children under ten years of age. Other nutritional needs of the household were likely met from the garden, hunting and shore fishing. While Philip’s farm produced 26 bushels of grain for a family of six, his father’s farm produced an equal amount for only two people. Friedrich’s 26 bushels amounted to a surplus, which he may have sold or shared with his son in return for labour to harvest the grain. Given such variables as family size and age, the statistics for Philip in 1770 place him above average for livestock ownership (see table).

Other Lunenburgers such as Adam Eisenhauer, Peter Wambold, Frederic Emoneau and Jacob Krauss grew considerably more grain than necessary for their respective families. Eisenhauer had a family of four in 1770 and cultivated 95 bushels while Emoneau, with a family of five, grew 110 bushels. Clearly, these families were producing a surplus which could then be marketed either in Lunenburg or in Halifax. Furthermore, all of the crown officials, merchants, traders and labourers in Lunenburg, as well as some of the artisans and craftsmen, showed no agricultural production whatever in 1770, although they owned livestock.[38] These people would therefore have to rely on the barter system or on an exchange of labour or cash in order to obtain and meet their household needs. The surplus of grain in Lunenburg was sufficient, however, to supply the entire community, with an average of forty bushels per household.[39]

The poll tax records on the 1790s are a further indication of Philip Heyson’s success as a farmer. In 1793 he was assessed at one poll and for owning nine neat cattle and eighteen sheep while the next year his assessment was for seven neat cattle and 28 sheep.[40] Here is another means by which to assess Heyson’s wealth relative to that of his neighbours who owned livestock. Considering just his nineteen fellow settlers at Oakland, he was above average in terms of livestock ownership in 1793, the average for cattle being 5.7 and sheep twelve. His ownership of a larger number of farm animals in comparison to his neighbours may in turn have been a function of such variables as his age, family size, the amount of cleared acreage he owned, and his general economic situation relative to these neighbours.

By the 1780s, Philip Heyson was financially secure. Evidence for this lies in the deed records, which show that in the late 1780s he held the mortgages for four pieces of property owned by various neighbours. In other words, Heyson was sufficiently prosperous to act as a mortgage broker, a common practice in Lunenburg since no banks existed. Loans through friends, neighbours or town merchants/traders were the only means by which people were able to secure cash needed to buy property. In all cases in which Heyson held a mortgaged property, the mortgage was duly paid and the land legally returned to the owner.

Regardless of his position, Heyson was not immune to land disputes, as witnessed in his difficulties with Peter Zwicker, Jr. In 1788 Heyson was a defendant in a case brought to court by his neighbour Philip Andrews. The latter accused him of enclosing his [Andews’s] land between 1 May and 1 November 1787, grazing cattle upon it and cutting £20 worth of grass. Andrews was seeking damages to his land, to which Heyson had also laid claim. Heyson, however, was found not guilty, because the land in question actually did belong to him and not to Andrews—who was ordered to pay the court costs.[41]

A few years later, in 1793, Heyson was again involved in a property dispute; this time it was with his brother-in-law, Melchior Zwicker, over a piece of property leased by Zwicker to one Richard Den. The latter was evicted from the property by Hyson, who claimed the land was his and that the lease was invalid. This time the court found for Zwicker, who recovered £6.16s.0d. from Heyson for trespass and illegal eviction.[42] Cases such as these were fairly common in Lunenburg and it is not surprising to find Philip Heyson in such circumstances. Many of the recorded land disputes and trespasses were settled outside of court; however, the Heyson cases were settled by jury after the evidence had been presented in court by a local lawyer, Voster Lombard.

In the 1790s and early 1800s, Philip still owned a vast amount of land. At the same time, this was a period of transition during which Heyson was preparing his sons for their eventual acquisition of his property holdings. Heyson and his wife Maria Magdalena lived well into the nineteenth century. To the end, he continued to have large landholdings, most of which he disposed of through his will, dated 11 July 1812. During his lifetime, Philip’s seven surviving children married and established families. The sons, including Johann Friedrich who died in 1806 and Johannes who died in 1811, resided in independent households scattered over Philip’s properties throughout Mahone Bay, Oakland and Indian Point.[43] His will divided the land among his three surviving sons and made monetary provisions for his two daughters, as well as his granddaughters by his deceased son, Johannes. The will also stipulated the future disposal of land bequeathed to his son Johann Jacob; it was to be divided between his [i.e., Johann Jacob’s] nephews, the eldest two sons of his brothers Johann Wilhelm and Johann Heinrich, should he (Johann Jacob) die without surviving issue, which he did in February 1815.[44] A superseded will from 1808 also survives, which when compared to the final document in 1812, indicates that Philip also sold or gave son land to his sons before he died.[45] An example was Indian Point Lot Number 6, which was acquired by William in 1812. Again, as was common in Lunenburg and reflecting old German practices, particle inheritance was employed along with the disposal of property in life.

Philip Heyson died on 1 January 1813, leaving his wife Maria Magdalena who died fifteen years later, on 26 March 1828.[46] Philip was survived by five adult children, while his wife was survived by three of those offspring. Not all the adult children of Philip and Magdalena produced heirs; of the seven who survived to adulthood, three sons and two daughters had children of their own. The two daughters, Anna Elizabeth (Heyson) Ernst and Anna Elizabeth Veronica (Heyson) Oxner each produced large families of seven and nine children respectively. Sons William and Henry also had large families of ten and thirteen, while Johannes had an illegitimate daughter before he married then three by his marriage to a different woman. The lack of male heirs for Philip Heyson in 1813 prevented the early division of the family property into small, non-viable holdings. William and Henry or their sons inherited all Philip’s real estate, either upon his death in 1813 or upon Jacob’s death in 1815. William died young in 1818, leaving his real estate to his sons while providing cash settlements to his daughters.

The Heyson family experience in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was typical of many Lunenburg families. They quickly established themselves upon the fertile land with which the township was endowed; indeed, this area boasted the only good arable soil along the entire South Shore of Nova Scotia. There was more than enough farm land in Lunenburg so that fathers could be generous with their children for inheritance purposes. The situation was analogous to that of early New England or to the post-Thirty Years’ War German States, where availability of land allowed for reasonable partible inheritance. In other words, the Heyson family was able to provide for its heirs.

When Friedrich Heÿson arrived in Lunenburg, he was a weaver with the intention of becoming a farmer. He successfully made the transition, as evidenced by the continuation of the family in the township when many others left, including that of his daughter.[47] Philip Heyson, the son, was also a successful member of the community, able to prosper on the new land. Despite the occasional property dispute, he rarely shows up in the official records other than the 1770 census and the poll lists of the 1790s. His heirs, in turn, were fortunate enough to inherit viable legacies in terms of land. They Heysons had a shared experience with other Lunenburg pioneers, in terms of settling in a new land, becoming established there and prospering.

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[1] The surname Heÿson also appeared in early township records ‘Heison’ and ‘Heyson’. In Wenings the name was ‘Heuson’, wile in Hering it became ‘Heison’ or ‘Heÿson’. Today in North America the name is ‘Hyson’ and in Germany ‘Heuson’. In this paper the spelling ‘Heÿson’ has been retained for Friedrch, while ‘Heyson’ is used for Philip and his heirs; the difference reflects common usage in their lifetimes.