Menu
- Home
- Search▼
- List▼
- Add▼
- My Relate▼
- Admin▼
ViewsWatchersBrowse |
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. Abt 1738
Facts and Events
"For decades, Britain had neglected Nova Scotia, with its thousands of French-speaking Catholics, but even as the mother country returned Louisbourg to France in 1748, it made an unprecedented commitment to the colony. Obeying decades of urgings form its own threatened officers at Annapolis Royal and , more recently, from Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, the British government decided to build a fortified city at Chebucto (Halifax). Britain�s first huge investment in North America, Halifax was founded for strategic reasons, and for two centuries would thrive only during wars or the anticipation of wars. Named after the Earl of Halifax, Lord of Trade and Plantations, Halifax was meant to be headquarters for army and navy forces, a checkmate against Louisbourg, a protector of New England and her trade, and the capital of a colony that would attract a flood of protestant immigrants to counterbalance the Catholic and supposedly dangerous Acadians. It was to be the new capital of a new Nova Scotia." "The Missaguash River formed what the French saw as the border between their Acadia and Britain�s Nova Scotia, and Le Lourtre used bribes and intimidation to induce Acadians to abandon their farms on the enemy�s side the stream and move across to the French side. He promised to get them established, pay them for their losses, and feed them for three years. When some refused to move, the threatened them with Mi�kmaq raids. In November 1749, Cornwallis [Lieutenant Colonel Edward Cornwallis, Governor of Nova Scotia], sent Major Charles Lawrence and a small force to the Isthmus of Chignecto. They discovered that, to force Acadians to cross the river, Le Lourtre had instigated the burning of the entire village of Beubassin. Confronted by La Corne�s troops, Lawrence withdrew, but the following summer he returned with a stronger force and, calm under intensse gunfire, routed a war party of Mi�kmaq led by Le Loutre. While La Corne watched from one side of the Missaguash, the British built a fort, which Lawrence named after himself. The French countered with their own new fort. Forts Lawrence and Beausejour glared at each other from opposite sides of the river. The tension caused hundreds of Acadians to cross the Missaguash, while others fled to Ile Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island). Cornwallis knew industrious, hard-working settlers when he saw them - and he wasn�t seeing many of them in the 2,500 emigrants he had brought to settle Halifax and establish a stronger British presence in Nova Scotia. "Most of them had come because of a promise of a year�s worth of free rations and were a lazy lot he thought." However, "back in Halifax, Cornwallis had found the few Swiss, among the original townsfolk were honest, hard working, and easy to govern." The Board of Trade began to send "Foreign Protestants" who "by their industrious and exemplary dispositions [would] greatly promote and forward the settlement in its infancy." "Nothing will give me greater pleasure" wrote Cornwallis, "than to hear that your Lordships have fallen upon some means of sending over German and other foreign Protestants." "Their Lordships" obliged Cornwallis by sending out over 2,000 foreign Protestants between 1750-1752. These settlers came mainly from farming districts drained by the Upper Rhine-German Palatinate, French, and German speaking Swiss cantons, and Montbeliard, a small French-speaking principality adjoining Switzerland. They were among the thousands of mostly German Protestants who emigrated to the New World to escape oppressive taxation, religious persecution, fear of arbitrary impressment to fight foreign wars, and increasing overpopulation." Johannas Godfred Turple and his wife Sophia arrived in Halifax between 1749-1752 with son Carl . "Well over half the foreign Protestants who came to Nova Scotia were farmers, but among them were carpenters, masons, bakers, shoemakers, tailors, butchers, and furriers. Most were Lutheran or French-speaking Swiss Calvinists. Many could read and write; a number of them had the benefits of an excellent education and they assumed leadership in local government and the nascent settlement�s commercial life. They arrived at Halifax during a brief uneasy peace in the continuing struggle between Britain and France for North American empire. Settling them in agricultural townships among the Acadians on the Bay of Fundy side proved impossible as Cornwallis had insufficient military strength to ensure their security in the face of open French and Indian hostility." The earliest Turple recording in the new world was for the christening of John Conrad Turple, son of Godfred and Sophia (recorded as Susan), 30 May 1752 in Halifax . They with the other "Foreign Protestants "languished in Halifax until finally the spring of 1753, when Cornwallis� successor as governor, Colonel Peregrine Hopson, abandoned the idea of settling them on the Bay of Fundy side. Instead he chose the peninsula and lands around Merligash Bay on Nova Scotia�s South Shore, a good days sail from Halifax. This site offered better security, a well protected harbour, and what was believed to be the best fertile land on the colony�s Atlantic coast. " "Thus, Lunenburg became one of the New World�s first planned communities - settled by Germans at the behest of the British to counteract the influence of the French, More important than being Germans, however, was they were Protestants and naturally opposed to any Catholics, French or otherwise." Godfred Turple, otherwise known as Johannas Godfed Torple, his wife Sophia and their children Carl, Able (Christian Able) and John Conrad.was recorded in "a list of foreign and other settlers victualled at Lunenburg , June 1755. Lunenburg today is one of the most beautiful settings in Nova Scotia. The town rising above the bay was settled in 1753 by these "foreign Protestants". The town was laid out in 1754 and even today there are buildings dating back as early as 1760 on the streets that still follow the original plan of 1754. Today there are still houses painted in whimsical colors of the past. Luneneburg is on what Nova Scotia calls the Lighthouse Route. Not too far away is the famed Peggy�s Cove, site of the most famous lighthouse in Canada. "Even closer to Luneburg is Mahone Bay, with its picturesque and much photographed view of three seaside churches� Mahone Bay has 365 islands and in early days it was the playground of pirates and privateers. Legend has it that Captain Kidd buried his treasure on Oak Island." Foreign Protestants (1750-1752) Many passengers on the ships were listed as being from Montbeliard. At the time, Montbeliard was still an independent "Countship" (or "Principality") and not yet a part of France (until 1793). Cornwallis, in a letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations dated 24 July 1749, had written: "there are amongst the settlers a few Swiss who are regular honest and industrious men, easily governed and work heartily: I hope your Lordships will think of a method of encouraging numbers of them to come over. A proposal was sent me when at Spithead which might perhaps answer the purpose, to make it known through Germany, that all Husbandmen, tradesmen or soldiers being protestants, should have the same rights & privileges in this province as were promised on his Majestys Proclamation to his natural born subjects, besides which, at their embarking at Rotterdam or Plymouth, or at their arrival here (as your Lordships shall think proper) each man should receive 40sh. or 50sh., and 10sh. for every person in his family, they to be at the charge of their own passage." (Nova Scotia Documents, p 565) But the stay in Lunenburg for the Turple family was to be short. A deed poll bearing the date 12 June 1754 between John Godfred Turpil and Sophia his wife of the town of Luninburg of the one part and George Francheville of Halifax of the other part, 6 pounds concerning two lotts in the North suburbs of Halifax, commonly called Dutch Town. Divieded against No. 4 in the second Row and No. 4 in the Upper Row Letter E and C. The last know child of John and Sophia was John Philip, born in Lunenberg 9 June 1755. We then find the Turple family back in Halifax. Back in Halifax the next generation of Turple�s married and began their families. From the children of John Godfred and Sophia, most if not all Turples in Halifax can trace their roots back to. St. Paul�s is the oldest Protestant church in Canada. Here we find the christenings and marriages of the Turple�s Christian Able Turple who with his parents and siblings were among those listed as "Foreign Protestants" in Lunenburg, married at the St. Paul�s 2 June 1772 to Elizabeth Turner. Johannas and Sophia had two sons named John. The eldest was John Conrad, who went by John. The youngest was John Phillip who went by Phillip Phillip was a fisherman in Halifax when he married Mary Titttle (or Tuttle) 24 December 1776 . In 1778, John who was a blacksmith married the widow, Frances Muhliy on March 31 . The first child of John and Frances was on 17 January 1779 in St. Paul�s. References
|
|||||||||||||||||||
