Alfred Chipman, Baptist Minister
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Alfred Chipman was ministering at the Baptist Church in Great Village in 1862. He was 28-years old and not yet married or formally ordained when he received this letter from Kentville in July of 1862. Although the sender is not named, the manuscript address is seen to be in the hand of his fiancé, Alice Shaw, when compared to a letter written by her in the Acadia University fonds (see below).
Alfred was born in 1834 at Pleasant Valley (now Berwick), Nova Scotia, to Rev. William Chipman and his second wife Eliza Ann. He was educated at Horton Academy, and Acadia College, where he received a BA in 1855, a MA in 1858. He taught at Horton Academy and Acadia College between 1855 and 1859 before studying at Newton College, 1859 and 1862. On October 28 of that year at River Philip, he married Alice Theodosia Shaw, daughter of Isaac Shaw and Sarah Lyons. He was ordained as a Baptist minister the next month, in November of 1862 at River Philip.
Baptists had a presence in Great Village since the 1830s. But the first official Baptist church was not organized until the 1850s, when a meeting house was built and the members decided on formal incorporation in 1856. Albert Chipman was one of a long series of itinerant ministers over the years. The Baptist church, perched at the top of Hustler's Hill on the road to Londonderry, is an unimposing building, but it has stood the rigors of time and weather well since it was built in 1852.
Albert's soon-to-be wife, Alice Theodosia Shaw was already an accomplished educator. She had traveled to Massachusetts at age 22 to attend the Mount Holyoke Seminary and after three years of study graduated in August 1857 with a MA degree. She then taught for one year at the Ladies Collegiate Institute of Worchester, MA, returning to Nova Scotia in 1858. She taught a term at the Chase school for young ladies in Wolfville, NS, but in June 1859 she opened her own School for Young Ladies in Berwick, NS. It was patterned after the Mount Holyoke scheme. In 1860, Alice was approached by the Horton Academy in Wolfville, NS to become the first principal of the new Female Department of Horton Academy. After much soul searching, she closed her Berwick School and moved to Wolfville where she organized the school in the former Chase School. She began with fifty students, 24 of whom boarded in. Once again, this school was modeled on the Mount Holyoke plan. In June 1861, Shaw took the suggestion of one of her students and renamed the school; it became the Grand Pre Seminary. After one and a half years, Shaw was forced to resign due to ill health and due to her impending marriage to Alfred Chipman. She resigned in June 1862. The story of Alice's endeavors was told by James Doyle Davison in Alice of Grand Pre: Alice T. Shaw and her Grand Pre Seminary: female education in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 1981.
For an example of an 1866 postal cover addressed to Mrs. Alice Chipman, follow the link below.
For an example of a letter from Alice Shaw to Albert Chipman, follow the link below.
Alfred and Alice had three children: Fred McCullock who was born in 1865 at Pictou, Nova Scotia and who died in Florida in 1892; Alvah Hovey who was born in 1867 in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia; and Chaloner Oaken, born 1871 at Sydney, Nova Scotia. Alice and Alfred retired to Berwick, NS in 1899.
The Chipmans of Nova Scotia
Alfred's great-grandfather, Handley Chipman was a Nova Scotia Planter, having been born August 31, 1717 in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Handley's father, John Chipman, had nine children by a previous wife and subsequently had two children by Handley’s mother, Elizabeth, who died in 1725. A cabinet maker by trade, Handley Chipman became a Justice of the Peace in 1748 in Newport, Rhode Island. He was elected Magistrate in 1753 and Deputy to the Rhode Island General Assembly.
Handley Chipman acquired land in Cornwallis, Kings Co., Nova Scotia and moved there on 7 May 1761. He was eventually elected Justice of the Peace, then Judge of Probate, a position which he maintained until his death.
Handley Chipman was married twice, the first on 24 April 1740 to Jean Allen (1722-1775), and the second on 14 December 1775 to Nancy Post (1755-1802). He had fifteen children in total: eleven by Jean Allen and four with Nancy Post. His eighth child was Thomas Handley (1756-1830) who became one of the founders of the Baptist denomination in Nova Scotia. His ninth child was William Allen Chipman (1757-1845), a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Town Clerk for Cornwallis, and an M.P. for Kings County between 1799 and 1806 and for Cornwallis between 1918 and 1818.
Handley Chipman was interested in the New Light Movement and a friend of its most prominent itinerant evangelist in Nova Scotia, Henry Alline. A commentary on parts of the Old Testament written in 1797 and Observations, Discourse, and Scriptures written in 1793 by Handley Chipman are in the Acadia University Archives.
Handley Chipman died on 27 May 1799 in Cornwallis, Kings Co., N.S. and is buried in the Congregational Cemetery, Chipmans Corner, Kings Co., N.S. The inscription on his tombstone reads:
Here Lies the Body of Handley Chipman
Esqr who Departed this life May the 27th,
1799 in the 82nd Year of his Age.
Alfred's father, William Allen Chipman, Jr. (1781-1865), born in Cornwallis, Kings County, NS, was the grandson of Handley Chipman and the son of William Allen Chipman Sr. and Ann Osborne. William, Jr. married his second-cousin Eliza Ann Chipman (1807-1853) daughter of Homes Chipman (b. 1777) who was a son of Handley Chipman and his second wife Nancy Post. Holmes married Elizabeth Andrews, the daughter of Israel Andrews from Hants County and they had eleven children including Eliza Ann (1807-1835), who married Rev. William Chipman in 1827. He and his second wife, Nancy had thirteen children including Alfred (1834-1918). William is buried in the Berwick Cemetery.
William held civic offices in Annapolis County. With his father, he formed prosperous commercial connections but William downsized his business ventures soon after his second marriage and moved to Pleasant Valley, now Berwick. He was baptized by Edward Manning and so was one of seven parishioners that constituted the first purely Baptist Church in Cornwallis. He was chosen clerk of the Church by Manning 1809, and would later become a Deacon. William was ordained a pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Cornwallis in 1829.
Throughout his life William occupied a very prominent position in the Baptist ministry of Nova Scotia. For many years he was clerk of the Nova Scotia Baptist Association. He was also appointed one of the Directors of the Nova Scotia Baptist Education Society, and served as a member of the Executive Committee. His interest in social gospel caused his to be supportive of Acadia College as well as Foreign Missions and the Temperance movement.
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