Dear Div.,
Yours of the first of March came to hand about a month ago and you will
excuse me for not writing sooner. We were all glad to hear from
you, where you were, and what you were doing, and particularly that
your health was good. We are enjoying a favourable share of health,
your sister is very well, she is a very steady girl and has got an
excellent place so I am told. She is living with Mr. George Sweet
at St. Croix, we saw him last Sabath at meeting in Newport where we
frequently see him. Your Grandfather Harvie is no more. He departed
this life in May 1861, and we have reason to believe that he departed
this life in full profession of that peace which is the profession
of those who have an inheritance at the right hand of GOD and him
in Heaven above. Your Grandfather Burton and family are all well,
we frequently hear from them, and we often see your uncle James
Burton and wife at meeting in Newport. You wished to know
something respecting your father's estate of which I cannot speak
correctly, but as a rough estimate it is worth about four hundred
pounds, one third of it being claimed by your stepmother as her
Dower and there are considerable expenses in the way of Dyke
rates.
Dear Walter you spoke in your letter of arriving in Australia
and of going to California, now dear Div, I hope that wherever
you go, in whatever you are engaged, endeavour to do all in
accordance with the will of God, knowing as you must that (in
whatever you are engaged) that GOD seist me. Now whether you
remain in Sydney or not I hope that you will remember the Sabath
and keep it holy, endeavour as far as possible to meet with the
people of GOD on the Sabath and worship with them in the Sanctuary.
Although Sidney is a country far from us we are not entire
strangers to its doings, and frequently have accounts of the
doings of the Presbeterian Church in that place, and as your
fathers (Nova Scotia) your native home, and your connections
were all more or less connected with that Church, I hope that
wherever you will be you will endeavour to meet and worship
with them, and whether you can meet with the Church or
not do not neglect the worship of GOD particuarly on the Sabath
day. Please write to us as often as convienient, I would like
to hear from you often say every six months or at least once
a year.
and remain yours affectionately
James Harvie
To Walter Harvie
Sidney
NEW SOUTH WALES
COMPILER NOTE:
In 2000 the original copy of the letter was understood
to be held by Mr. Robert P. Harvey of Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
James Harvie (1803-1890) was an older brother of Walter Harvie's
father Daniel (1811-1851) and his court appointed guardian. It
is said when James Harvie died in 1890 he had been an elder
of the Presbyterian Church for 50 years
1. When
the letter was written in 1862 the addressee at 19 years of age
was 40 years his uncle's junior. The ‘Div’ form of
address is an archiac abbreviation of the word
divaricate
meaning - branch, diverge, seperate widely etc. The term
‘connections’ was in general useage in
the 19th century to refer to relatives.
In respect of
the "more or less" involvment of Walter's Harvie ancestors
with the Presbyterian Church deed records suggest it was
actually Walter Harvie's Burton connections more so than the
Harvies' who were involved with the Presbyterian Church in the
Newport and Windsor areas - at least in the early 1850s. Those
records show the land on which St. John's Presbyterian Church
of Windsor was erected was conveyed to the trustees by James
Robertson on 10 March 1810 (Hants County Registry of Deeds
Book 8 at page 418), and St. John's church was consituted under
an Act of the provincial legislature by a deed dated 28 March
1829. Later when doubts arose as to the validity of the original
consitution of St. John's it was reconsituted on 29 September 1853.
Of the 28 names appearing on this latter deed none were named
Harvie
! The name of Walter Harvie's grandfather Walter
Burton (or perhaps his son Walter Burton Jr.) appeared as a
signatory as did that of his uncle William Burton with whom
Walter later wrote he lived with in the Latties Brook/Burtons
area for two years from about 1856-58. The deed also appointed
his uncle William Burton as one of the five trustees of the
church charged with administering its civil affairs.
The name of
another of Walter Harvie's uncles James Burton, also mentioned
in the above letter, appeared on the 1873 communion roll of
the St. Croix Presbyterian Church that was not organised until
1864 hence the reason why in 1862 he would have still
attended St. John's in Windsor.
The letter
writer James Harvie should have known the estate of his late
brother Daniel Lockhart Harvie was worth much more than four
hundred pounds
! In 1866 the real estate alone was
valued at £1086. Dyke rates were payable to maintain the
dykes. However such should have been covered by receipts from
the rental of the land - seemingly payable by uncle James Harvie
who an asute reader will note in his letter was not offering
any encouragement to his nephew to return to Nova Scotia to
claim his inheritance !
SOURCES:
1 Nova Scotia
Historical Quarterly #4 of 1976, Robert P. Harvey, John Harvie
(1730-1822) of Newport Nova Scotia, Three Generations of Descendants.