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 HomePort  S.S. Neptune which was first Captained by Hon. Edward White  
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Ancestor Collage
Greetings from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and the Scott family. HomePort began as a way to share family history research grouped by family name with brief introductions below. A list of blogs and websites maintained by Ian Scott is available. Welcome aboard.
Nova Scotia ancestral families Newfoundland ancestral families Prince Edward Island ancestral families
Scott@HomePort Bemister@HomePort Lawson@HomePort
Gillmore@HomePort Knight@HomePort Smith PEI@HomePort
Harvey@HomePort Pitts@HomePort Rogers@HomePort
Hunter@HomePort Ayre@HomePort Sinclair@HomePort
Smith NS@HomePort White@HomePort MacKenzie@HomePort
Dill@HomePort Duder@HomePort Large@HomePort



Situated in New London on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, Village Pottery was founded in 1973 by Daphne Large. A family business now owned by our daughter Suzanne Scott it is located in an historic building from the 1850's; the shop features a gallery and studio which sells pottery made by four members of our family as well as other artisans, and artists. Located next door is Potters Parlour the latest venture launched by Suzanne.
Scott@HomePort

Scott family material related to the family of Jean Dalgity & Sergt. David Scott who were married in Forfar, Angus, Scotland in 1795 is told through Scott@HomePort.  Pictures, source material and biographies support the story told through the Family From Forfar series.


Articles by John Redford Scott includes materials written between 1935-1958.  A brief biography of Rev. J.R. "Jack" Scott, whose ministry took him from coastal Nova Scotia to the horseback missionary fields of the Canadian North, tells of his war-time service as a naval padre on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, his graduate studies in Scotland, and his Canadian ministry.
  
Gillmore@HomePort
Rev. George Gillmore (1720-1811) of Antrim, Ireland a pioneer Presbyterian minister, with his wife Ann Allen and children embarked on a three month voyage from Scotland to America in 1769.  His British allegiances branded him a Loyalist after the American Revolution thus he fled discrimination and followed his conscience north, settling in Nova Scotia on Ardoise Hill in 1786 and eventually returned to active ministry in his adopted land.  A transcription of his journal and a biography of Rev. George Gillmore were both produced by Sidvin F. Tucker in 1960.  A brief biography of Rev. Gillmore  draws from that text and is a recommended introduction. The Gillmore family avoided starvation in Nova Scotia, subsisting on milk and potatoes, with Rev. George (in his late sixties) for three winters carrying hay on his back, through deep woods for four miles to keep the two cows producing milk.
Despite the hardship the family  grew strong and through the eight children of George and Ann a large number of descendants have been recorded in Tucker's manuscript - The Gillmore Saga.  A lasting monument to his efforts stands in the restored and still active Covenanters' Church (see history) in  Grand Pré built during his ministry there. Records suggest that his ministry continued until he was over 90.  A dozen of the descendants have, like their ancestor, entered the Christian ministry including Rev. Dr. John Corston and
 Rev. John Redford Scott.

Knight@HomePort
When Capt. William C. Knight was hired in 1859 to take an American artist aboard Integrity, sailing from Newfoundland to Labrador,  little did he know the ongoing effect the voyage would have.  The artist Frederic Edwin Church was a member of the group known as the Hudson River School.  The year of the voyage Church's monumental painting The Heart of the Andes was first shown to the public illuminated by hidden gaslights in a darkened room - it caused a sensation in New York.
The Labrador voyage with Capt. Knight led Church to paint Aurora Borealis a painting that is now seen as a defining point in the life of the American people when, torn apart as a nation during the Civil War the image captured the hope epitomized by light piercing the darkness.  Many Americans had also seen a similar display in the sky that year and, as, northern had special meanings during that time the painting became imbued with additional symbolism.

The Icebergs, another painting from the voyage, when it sold in 1979 at auction, brought the highest price ($2.5 million) ever paid for a painting by an American artist, at that time.  Rev. Louis Noble, who accompanied the voyage,  published After Icebergs with a Painter in 1861.  Captain Knight receiving a painting set, from the artist, and may have taken up painting himself, although no paintings have been located to verify this.  A grandson of Capt. Knight - poet, E.J. Pratt  like Church brought the sea and icebergs to life in poetic form during the 20th Century and great-great-grandson Christopher Pratt today continues Capt. William Knight's interest in ocean sailing.

The Complete Poems and Letters of E.J. Pratt: A Hypertext Edition includes cross referencing between poems and his letters and journals as part of the Pratt Project.

White@HomePort
The 1903-1906 Journal of Walter Edward White, started at the age of 23, reveals his life in the capital of Newfoundland.  Born the grandson of prominent politician and ship's captain, the Hon. Edward White and Anne Weir, young Walter shares the family interest is experimental agriculture at their country house near St. John's. He lives with his parents in a  mansard-roofed double house on the South Side of St. John's harbour next door to his cousins and has already entered the world of the Water Street merchants at Bowring Bros.& Co.  He develops his lifelong passion for Methodism and Christian service to others,  and courts his future wife Edith Knight.  Eventually he establishes his own Water Street wholesale firm, continues a leadership role in George Street Church,  raises six children,  gardens actively - following the patterns of a productive 90 year lifetime that are shown in the formative years of his manhood.  Living in the centre of a politically active family he documents the life in the Dominion of Newfoundland,  during a critical transition period now seen as the last golden age of independence - for what was Britain's oldest colony.  Learn more about Walter or read his Journals.
The ships associated with the Hon. Edward White a Newfoundland ship owner and Captain who sailed brigs, schooners and brigantines built in the Atlantic Provinces from Brazil to Labrador. He was Capt. of three large wooden steamers (with sails) constructed in Scotland under his supervision for Job Brothers & Co.  After he retired from the sea at 71, several ships continued to have illustrious careers not only in Newfoundland but also in establishing Canadian arctic sovereignty and in international Antarctic exploration carrying Sir. Ernest Shackleton on his epic voyage of 1907-1909.
Dr. George M. Story, a Rhodes Scholar who taught for 40 years at Memorial University of Newfoundland was a descendant  of Hon. Edward White.  His article Building a St. John's Victorian House describes the process by which Hon. Edward White built The New House in St. John's a house long associated with Story as he was raised in one side of the two family house and upon his return to Newfoundland from Oxford purchased the other side (which had briefly been sold outside the family) making his home there and raising a family, next door to his sister Janet Story,  and once again bringing full occupancy of the double house to the fifth generation of the same family.
Bemister@HomePort
Bemisters of Carbonear, Newfoundland include the Bemister Bulletin and updates on the 2004 reunion in England as well a Vancouver gathering in 2002.  The 1999 reunion celebrating the birthday of John Bemister (1749-1838), was held in Carbonear, Newfoundland. John married Mary Willis (1747-1832) at Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England and through their 79 grandchildren, hundreds of descendants now live throughout North America. The reunion, the first held in Newfoundland where the family immigrated, brought together descendants, their friends and families. And followed an earlier gathering held in 1998 in Toronto.  Ships associated with the Bemister family is a nautical page about family owned schooners, brigs and brigantines. Read about Emma Jane Bemister and visit Bemister@HomePort.

We are currently researching sixty pioneer families in the Atlantic provinces. Check out our ancestral connections page.

Do you have information that could be helpful in correcting or adding to content of HomePort ?  We appreciate your comments, suggestions and additions.
 Ian Scott, Charlottetown, PEI
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