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Healys and Crosbys from Massachusetts to Chebogue, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

From Cape Code to Nova Scotia to Beverly, Massachusetts

My ancestor Joseph Edwin Healey arrived in Massachusetts from Nova Scotia sometime between his marriage in 1848 and the birth of his first child in Beverly, in 1852. I’m not sure if he arrived on a boat, but being a mariner, he probably sailed to his new home with his new bride. He is listed as a sailor or mariner on his children’s birth records in Beverly, and as a fisherman on the 1860 Federal Census records.

His wife was Matilda Weston, also born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Her father was Zadoc Weston, a direct descendant of Edmund Weston of Duxbury, Massachusetts, who was apprenticed to John Winslow. There was much intermarriage between the Westons and Mayflower families. It is from this side of the family that I gained seven Mayflower ancestors. These families removed to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia as part of the Planter Movement. They received free land upon the removal of the French Protestants in the wake of the French and Indian War. In the Old Cemetery at Chebogue Town Point, near Yarmouth, I found the gravestones of these families.

The Plymouth County farmers who removed to Nova Scotia received land for farming, but it must have been a very rough existence, because within two or three generations, my lineage came back to Massachusetts. Several years ago we took a family vacation to Nova Scotia, and I was able to visit the towns, churches and cemeteries where my predecessors once lived. Although it was beautiful, Yarmouth was also rocky, bleak and poor farming country. Some stayed, but some returned to New England.

Joseph and Matilda lived at 43 Bartlett St., Beverly, and their daughter, and then their granddaughter raised their families there. My mother remembers visiting her grandmother there. I was born in Beverly, and every time we passed Bartlett St. my mother would say “That’s Nana’s house!” Using the street view on Google maps I can still visit there.

Old Cemetery at Chebogue Town Point, Nova Scotia
GPS coordinates N43 46.61 W 66 05.907
Behind the Chebogue Congregational Church

Epitaph of Comfort Healy (Joseph Edwin Healey’s grandfather):
In memory of
Mr. Comfort Healy
who died May 15, 1821
Aged 67
Hear what the voice from Heaven proclaims
For all the pious dead
Sweet is the savior of their names
and soft their sleeping bed
Them while ye hearing heart strings break
How sweet my minutes roll
Immortal paleness on my cheek
And glory in my soul

Also a Chebogue
(a new memorial was raised above the original stones of Jonathan and Hannah Crosby, Matilda Weston’s great grandparents, because the originals were illegible)

Jonathan Crosby
1703-1782
Hannah Crosby
1704-1791
Came to Chebogue
June 11, 1761

Jonathan Crosby came to Chebogue, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia from Mansfield, Massachusetts, via Saybrook, Connecticut in Jun 1761, and settled on what was afterwards called Crocker's Point. The Crosbys with six other families sailed in a small vessel up the coast and into the harbor at Chebogue. He died at Chebogue on the 26th July 1782, aged 78 years and 10 months, his wife surviving him. The Yarmouth church records give a list of people who had been members "in full communion of some church heretofore" and among these original members were "Jonathan Crosby and Hannah his wife, members of the First Church in Mansfield, New England, the Rev. Richard Salter, Pastor." (New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, January 1941)

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Comment by Sharon Gillis on November 11, 2010 at 3:07pm
Abigail Haley married John Vickery 1774-1852
Their granddson (my GG Granddfather) Oscar D. Vickery came back to MA.
Comment by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 11, 2010 at 3:00pm
Her death record could always be a mistake. I don't know who was the "informant". Anyways, the next edition of the Silver Book will probably show this new information according to Paul Bumpus. Which sibling of Comfort Haley is your ancestor?
Comment by Sharon Gillis on November 11, 2010 at 2:56pm
There they are...my line ended with Rebecca marrying my GGGG Uncle Comfort Haley. Interesting about Mary (?). I got the name Pratt from George Soule's Silver Mayflower book where it only lists two wives. Mary Pratt being the first wife which would prohibit her from having a 2nd husband :) His second wife Sarah, died 1857, which would lead me to believe Zadoc was not marrying for a third time in his 90s? Glad they are not in my Pedigree lineage...but I wish I knew more about Mary. My moms maiden name is Pratt !!! But seeing these families came from the South Shore of MA, I can assume they are from the "other" Pratt line. My line is from the North Shore :)
Comment by Heather Wilkinson Rojo on November 11, 2010 at 2:30pm
Zadoc Weston's daughter Matilda Weston married Joseph Edwin Healey in 1848. His parents were Comfort Haley and Rebecca Crosby. Rebecca's lineage is Ebenezer, Jonathan, John, Thomas the immigrant. By the way I have Matilda's death certificate in Beverly and it lists her mother as "Mary Clements". Did Mary Pratt remarry? Or is this a third wife for Zadoc Weston? It was accepted by the Mayflower Society as Mary (maiden name unknown) on my application.
Comment by Sharon Gillis on November 11, 2010 at 2:09pm
Hi Heather, not surprised at all when I see your name anymore!
Can you tell me how you have Matilda Weston hooking up with the Crosby family.
Zadoc is my 5GU, but I don't see him connecting with the Crosby family. I have him marrying a Mary Pratt and a Sarah Macduffie.
I, too have many families that did the Planter migration to Nova Scotia...and back again!
Thanks!

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