Robert Jefferson, farmer

Nova Scotia # 9 on May 18th, 1865, county-rate cover from Annapolis to Round Hill, Nova Scotia. Addressed to Robert J. Jefferson, Round Hill, N.S. Backstamp Annapolis, N.S. MY 18 1865. Stamp has a piece of selvage attached on the right with partial "American Bank Note Company".

Robert James Jefferson was a 24-year-old farmer at Round Hill, Annapolis County, when he received this letter from Annapolis town. Robert was born on May 1st, 1841, in Moschelle, Annapolis County to William Jefferson and Maria Burton. He was soon to marry, on October 4th,1865, at Hillsburgh, Annapolis, Minetta Augusta Jefferson (born May 4th, 1841, his first cousin once removed, the daughter of his father's nephew, George Henry Evans Jefferson). They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 4 daughters. He died of arterial sclerosis and apoplexy (stroke) on April 26th, 1914, at the Nova Scotia Hospital in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, at the age of 72, and is buried in Round Hill Cemetery with his wife Minetta A. who predeceased him on Sept 28, 1907.

Robert's father, William Jefferson was born in 1800, in Round Hill, to Robert Jefferson and Elizabeth Evans. He married Maria Burton on 4 March 1832, in Annapolis Royal. He farmed at Round Hill. William and Maria were the parents of at least 6 sons and 4 daughters. He died on April 26th, 1888, at the age of 88, and is buried in Round Hill Cemetery.

Robert's grandfather, Robert Jefferson was born in 1749, in Beilby, Yorkshire, England, to Stephen Jefferson and Elizabeth Welch. He emigrated from Hull, England in 1770. He landed in Halifax but soon removed to Round Hill, Annapolis County where he obtained employment on the farm of Henry "Harry" Evans. Eighteen months later, in 1775, he married Henry's daughter, Elizabeth. He then became sole manager of the Evans farm and, on the death of his father-in-law, the owner of it. Robert and Elizabeth were the parents of at least 6 sons and 9 daughters. He died on 19 October 1812, in Round Hill, Annapolis, Nova Scotia, Canada, at the age of 63, and is buried there.

Robert's great-grandfather, Henry Evans, lends his name to the first grant of the Township of Annapolis, the Felch-Evans Grant. He was born in Massachusetts and lived near Sudbury. He was sent to Halifax on behalf of the applicants for a grant of the township of Annapolis to obtain explanations from Governor Lawrence on some points not clearly set forth in his proclamation regarding the rights of the intending immigrants to religious worship, freedom of thought, speech, and other matters. The diary of his journey to Nova Scotia is printed in W. A. Calnek's History of the County of Annapolis, pp. 148ff. In his journal he recounts being employed in the autumn of 1760 surveying and laying out the lands for the new settlers who had arrived in considerable numbers during the spring and summer. The following year he was appointed one of the four Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the county. In 1777 he was elected to the Assembly as member for the county, his colleague was William Shaw, of Granville. He held the seat till he died, November 2nd, 1782, aged 57.

The 1871 census for Annapolis Royal lists Robert Jefferson, 29, birthplace Nova Scotia, Church of England, farmer, with his wife, Henretta Jefferson, 29, son Henry Jefferson, 3, daughter Allica A Jefferson, 1, his mother, Amelia Jefferson, 78.

A. F. Church map, showing Jeffersons farms in Rosette, Annapolis County

The 1881 census for Annapolis Royal, has Robert Jefferson, 39, farmer, Church of England, with his wife Minetti Jefferson, 39, and children Henry Jefferson, 13, Jessie Jefferson, 8, Vach...ias Jefferson, 6, Sydnie Jefferson, 3, Manion Jefferson, 1.

The 1891 census for Lequille, Annapolis, lists Robert Jefferson, 50, Church of England, farmer, father's birthplace Nova Scotia, mother's birthplace England, Minnette Jefferson, 50, Wife, Jessie Jefferson, 18, Daughter, Verchers Jefferson, 16, Son, ?? A Jefferson, 13, Daughter, Marion Jefferson, 11, Daughter, Robert Jefferson, 7, Son.

The 1901 census for Lequille, Annapolis, has Robert Jefferson, 50, born 1 May 1841, Nova Scotia, Church of England, farmer, Miltimer Jefferson, 50, Wife, Vorhee E. Jefferson, 26,

Son, Anetta Jefferson, 23, Daughter, Marion Jefferson, 21, Daughter, Robert B Jefferson

17, Son.

The 1911 census for Annapolis, has Robert Jefferson, 70, Roman Catholic, farmer ret, living with Henry E Jefferson, 43, Son, Jessie S Jefferson, 38, Daughter, Robert V Jefferson, 28, Son.

Robert Jefferson died April 25, 1914, at Nova Scotia Hospital, Halifax, age 72, farmer, widower, of arterial sclerosis and apoplexy.

A Thomas Jefferson Connection?

There is improbable, but not impossible, family speculation a link between Robert's grandfather, Robert Jefferson and the American statesman Thomas Jefferson. According to the notes of Mary Ann Harris (1806-1889), a sister to Robert Jefferson Harris (grandson of Robert), Robert Jefferson was the son of Stephen Jefferson, who was a brother of Thomas Jefferson, father of President Thomas Jefferson of the United States. Robert Jefferson's uncle Thomas took money which his father had made by selling his estate in Yorkshire and eloped to America with Jane Randolph, a young lady from London. In America he changed his name to Peter. Their son Thomas, later President, was born 2 April 1743. The President seldom alluded to his family and was shy in writing of family matters.

"The tradition of my father's family was, that their ancestor came to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowdon, the highest in Great Britain. ... The first particular information I have of any ancestor was of my grandfather.....He had three sons; Thomas who died young, Field who settled on the waters of Roanoke and left numerous descendants, and Peter, my father, who settled in the lands I still own.....He was born February 29, 1707/8, and intermarried 1739, with Jane Randolph, of the age of 19, daughter of Isham Randolph, one of the seven sons of that name and family, settled at Dungeoness in Goochland. They trace their pedigree far back in England and Scotland, to which let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses."

"Selected notes from The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson from The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Edited by Adrienne Koch and William Peden, Random House, New York, 1993.

Round Hill, Annapolis County

Round Hill is an historic community on the Annapolis River halfway between the market towns of Bridgetown and Annapolis Royal. It is 10 kilometres east of Annapolis Royal and the same distance west of Bridgetown. This site is one of the first locations in North America continuously occupied by families of French origin. Known as Rosette to the French, the area was settled in the early 1600s by Acadians from France’s Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.  Around 1610, and at least until 1636, the Lambert, Lejeune, and Gaudet families contributed to the establishment of local culture and trade and begin to create families with the Mi'kmaqs of Membertou. Charles de Biencourt was buried at this site in 1624 at the age of 31. Pierre Thibaudeau, a miller by trade, took ownership of the site in 1654 and built a mill powered by the waterway, called Des-Loups-Marins. He was called "The Miller of Round Hill", and the mill remained in his family until the Deportation of 1755. The Acadian legacy remains in the form of dikes, orchards and the remnants of their mills and other structures as well as in family names and the names of nearby communities and geographical features.

The Acadians were replaced in the 1760's by New England Planters.  Loyalists arrived after the American Revolution, the most famous being Colonel James De Lancey (September 6, 1746 – May 2, 1804), an American-born military officer and politician who led one of the best known and most feared of the loyalist units, De Lancey's Brigade, during the American Revolution. He was known as the "Commander of the Cowboys" by the loyalists and, by the Patriots, as the "Outlaw of the Bronx". Forces under Delancy ambushed and killed Colonel Christopher Greene and Major Ebenezer Flagg of the Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army at the Battle of Pine's Bridge on May 14, 1781. From one account of the attack, "his body was found in the woods, about a mile distant from his tent, cut, and mangled in the most shocking way". He later became a political figure in Nova Scotia, representing Annapolis Township in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1786 to 1794. He has become a controversial figure for unsuccessfully trying to use the courts to retrieve a slave he brought to Nova Scotia.