54 Commercial

the east of his wharf for protection. Folklore has it that the Knight Wharf was the one later bought by Matthew and McLean and now is in the hands of East Pac. John Knight built a store at the head of this wharf and did a large business in ship chandlery. He later had shipyards at Souris West, Chepstow and North Lake.

In 1840, he married Lillie Leslie, daughter of Alexander Leslie.‘ She died five years later and she and her twelve year old son were buried in Bay Fortune Cemetery, the only Protestant burial ground at that time. Lillie’s stone, which is now almost illegible, is unusual with a skull and crossbones carved at the top. Amelia MacDonald of West River, now called Kingsboro, who became his second wife, outlived him.5 She was the daughter of Donald MacDonald and Ann (MacLean) MacPhee, sister of Widow MacPhee. Her cousin, Hannah, who taught in John Knight’s private school, married Doctor Ephraim Muttart.

During the late 1850s and throughout the prosperous 18608, John Knight acquired great wealth. He built a large house set in a formal garden to the east of what is, today, known as Knights Lane. His obituary has this to say, “In his intercourse with men of the world, he was cool, calculating, practi- cal, shrewd, never off his guard and always to the point.”6 Not exactly the description of a gambler but he did take calculated risks. During the Civil War in the United States, he bought American currency at about sixty cents on the dollar and held it until it went back to par.7 He invested in land and, at his death, owned 35,000 acres.

It is said that John Knight’s great desire was to see the day when Souris Harbour would be a safe haven and when the Town would have regular steamship communication with the mainland.“

The second early Souris merchant was Donald Beaton, born at East Point in 1816. His grandfather of the same name came to the Island in 1774 from Scotland. He was with the militia in Charlottetown in 1776 when the Amer- ican privateers carried off acting Governor Phillips Callbeck. In 1799 he purchased or was granted a large tract of land at East Point. In 1839, Donald Beaton, the grandson, a merchant in Charlottetown, was listed as an ensign in the militia there. He moved his business to Souris in the 18403 and became engaged in the fishery and shipbuilding.9

He kept a store on the site of the present Car Wash building and had two fishing establishments as noted in the 1861 census of the Island. One of these was in Souris in the little gully near his store where he had a small wharf block.10 The other was at Chepstow or Royal Cove as it was often called, where for a time he kept a store down on the shore of the present Mrs. Anselm MacDonald’s farm.

Beaton’s shipbuilding operation was less extensive than that of John Knight’s and appears limited to building vessels mainly for his own coastal trade and smaller boats for sale or lease to his fishermen.

In 1851 he sent out a notice requesting all his accounts be paid as he is about to leave Souris.11 Instead, shortly after, he built the house presently occupied by Ardyce Leard and son, Boyd, and, in 1854, brought his bride, Maria Clementine Sobieski MacDonald to Souris.12 She was the daughter of Hon. John Small MacDonald.

Very little information has been passed down of any setbacks John Knight may have had but many of Donald Beaton’s letters have been preserved. One, written to Captain Michael LaVie addressed to McNears Cove, Straits of Canso, January 8, 1864, gives information about two of his