Properties and People

home was once again the place for a “time” or country party. Tupper was true to his Scottish heritage with the incessant, quite subconscious, whistling of the tune “Road to the Isles.”

Craggan Farm had been in the Ferguson family for almost 150 years operating as a mixed farm specializing in Ayrshire cattle. Tupper, who had no family, was almost 70 years old and living alone after the death of his second wife Mabel Enman in 1950. In 1952 neighbour Almon Wood purchased the property and Tupper moved in with his widowed sister Jane MacNevin on the Union Road in East Royalty.

The heritage home still stands and has been continuously occupied. The age of the house has not

been determined but it is thought to be mid- ninetieth century. Tupper’s niece, Emma MacMillan, remembers when it was completely renovated by her father, Alexander MacNevin, in 1917.

The property was deeded to Wally and David Wood, East River Farms, in 1970 then to Bruce and

David Wood as a portion of East River Farms in 1990.

Submitted by Wally Wood

' Homby, J., Black Islanders, Island Studies No. 3,1991.

SAINT CUTHBERTS (S7)

This low lying 126-acre farm in the middle of Marshfield is surrounded almost exclusively by the St. Peters Road on the north, the Lower Marshfield Road on the west, the Mill Creek to the south and the Mills Road on the east. It appears to be the piece left over after surrounding farms were carved out; a farm with a very interesting historical heritage, 21 small portion of which will be related here.

This farm has had several names over the years including Erin Vale, Woodville and Saint Cuthberts. It was also the site of a grist and saw mill through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Exactly when the mill was constructed is unknown but James Hayden, a millwright, was the first identified lessee in 1812. The property at that time encompassed a much larger tract of 244 acres. Two of the granite stones used to construct the mill, likely from the old country, are still on the farm today. One has been cut for use as a door step, the other is used as a base for a flag pole.

In 1818 a lease was assigned to Fade Goff, Esquire, through an agreement that he pay the mortgage on the property, held by James Lewis Hayden. The mortgage was made payable to John Green, cabinet maker of Queens county and Matilda Brecken, widow, of Charlottetown. Portion leased being forty-four acres, together with all houses, out houses, erections, buildings, woods, under woods, water ways, water courses, profits and commodities whatsoever. The mortgage being for the amounts of £119/ 14/8 and £26/ 15/8 respectively.

-101—

In 1833 transfer of the lease agreement to Fade Goff ’s two sons, Richard F. and John Goff occurred for the sum of £2,600. The lease agreement now included additional property to the east with the whole totalling 244 acres and referred to as Erin Vale. It has not been determined whether the large house, a landmark for close to two hundred years, was constructed by J. L. Hayden or the Goff’s. However, it was built early in the nineteenth century according to knowledgeable architectural historians.

Charles Braddock, formerly of Nans Villa and Binstead (see Tales and Items of Interest, An Apparition Walked and Wept at Binstead House), assumed the lease in 1849 from Joseph Hammond on behalf of the mortgage holder Hon. Samuel Cunard of Halifax. This transfer occurred to avoid foreclosure on a mortgage held by Cunard on the property of Fade Goff. The property at this time was referred to as Saint Cuthberts. Then in 1852, George Charles and Robert Sanderson, shipbuilders of St. Peters Bay, took a full chattel mortgage on all livestock, equipment and furnishings of Charles Braddock for the amount of £373/10/4. This mortgage was for a brigantine that they had sold and delivered to Braddock in 1847.

It appears that Charles Braddock came by “hard times” during his tenure at Saint Cuthberts. The property had been reduced to 126 acres as a result of lease rights being granted to Edward Curtis Haythome on 106 acres of the eastern