Richard Black Huestis [H123]
(1822 - 1877 )

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Richard Black Huestis [H123] (1822-1877) m. Eliza Augusta Black

  • Mary Amelia Pugsley Huestis [H1231] (1850-1925) m. Arthur Davison
  • Sidney Osborn Huestis [H1232] (1853- ) m. Lila Lewis
  • Sarah E. Fulton Huestis [H1233] (1855- ) m. William Clifford Greenfield

Richard was one of the older sons of Joshua Huestis. I expect that his middle name honours his mother's family, as she was a Black from Amherst. Richard married one of his cousins, Augusta Black, and had three children. Richard was a merchant in Wallace for a few years, and also a boat-builder. His brother Martin Huestis says in his essays:

"Richard B. Huestis built in the same yard [Hon. Stephen Fulton's boatyard] a number of brigs and brigantines for Newfoundland people. After the shipbuilding days were over Mr Huestis moved to Amherst where for some years he was a leading merchant. This busy yard, like others, gave work to a large number of efficient workmen."

There were a number of important jobs involved in the building of ships. First and foremost, there were the owners, men who put up the capital to get the ship built, and who later either employed the vessel in the local carrying trade, or sold it. The second big job was that of builder, the man who owned or leased the shipyard, employed the men, ensured that timber and iron fittings and rigging were in place when needed, and turned the finished vessel over to the owners. And then there were the ship's carpenters, the men who actually built the ships, piece by piece, with no machinery except that powered by human effort. The timbers were shaped with axe and adze, the logs were cut into planks by men with iron saws, and the planks were shaped with hand planes, bent with steam, and hammered into place with wooden treenails ("trunnels").

Stephen Fulton's shipyard was near the centre of town, probably in the area below the present fisherman's wharf. They weren't great sprawling sites because they weren't making huge vessels - most modern houses are larger than many of the ships built in Wallace. Richard's role in the first of his ships was as part builder and part owner. In 1852 Richard and his partners James Carty and Michael MacKay built the Willing Lass, a brigantine of 115 tons.

These were not large ships. We know that Richard's first brig was registered as 115 tons, meaning that according to the calculations of British harbour authorities the vessel should be able to carry 115 tons of freight and could be charged a levy based upon that weight. In fact the tonnage of a ship was a mathematical calculation based upon the measurements of the ship, and working backwards with formulas and rules of thumb we find that the Willing Lass was probably 75 feet long and about 18 feet at her widest part (the beam). She probably needed 9 feet of water to float.

By comparison, the Bluenose II, a schooner, is about twice the length (156 ft), half again as wide (27 ft beam) and over twice the tonnage (246 tons). This is not a good comparison, as the Bluenose is of very different design, but there aren't many sailing ships in the area to compare to the Willing Lass.

A brigantine was a ship built for hauling cargo across the Atlantic and down into the Caribbean Sea. They usually had two masts, with the foremost mast square-rigged and the aft mast rigged with fore-and-aft sails. The fore mast had sails that were at right angles (square) to the keel: these are the sails that billow out in the wind and are very efficient when the ship is running with the wind. They are much less efficient when the ship is beating against the wind and it cannot sail close in. But the aft mast was rigged with sails running parallel to the keel (fore-and-aft); these are the sails like on the Bluenose, with a triangular sail attached to the mast and a long boom supporting the bottom of the sail. The combination of these two different riggings made the brigantine a very efficient all-purpose ship.

Many of the ships built in Wallace were sold in either Newfoundland or in Great Britain. Those were the centres of maritime trade in the North Atlantic, and the usual pattern was that the new ship would be loaded with a cargo of timber and sailed off to its new owners. The crew would get back home as best they could on other vessels coming back this way. Sometimes the owner of a ship would keep it and use it in the coastal freighting trade, sailing between the Northumberland ports and Halifax with general cargoes and occasionally, passengers. And sometimes the owners would employ their ship in the carrying trade while they waited for the ship to be sold; it was not uncommon for the market for vessels to turn between the time that the keel was laid and the time that the ship was fully finished.

Richard's first vessel, the Willing Lass, was sold in Greenock, Scotland. In 1854 he built the Mary, doubtless named for his first daughter, who would have been four years old that year. Richard was not only the builder, but also the sole owner, which represented a serious risk for his capital. It was far more common for shipowners to sell shares, usually multiples of 64ths so that a loss at sea, or a loss at time of sale, could be shared. The Mary was also a brigantine, but a little larger at 134 tons. She was sold to Nwefoundland interests. In the following year Richard built the Iris (127 tons) and the year after that, in 1856 he built the Celt, a small brigantine of only 79 tons, which would be about 65 feet long. This would be a small ship for the time; she was also sold in Newfoundland.

That seems to be the extent of Richard's shipbuilding career, although as a merchant and capitalist he may well have been an investor or silent partner in other vessels build in Wallace in subsequent years. In 1861 Richard and Augusta took over her father's farm in Maccan, which is just outside Amherst. I think that they merely lived there and had it farmed by others, as Richard was said to be a merchant in Amherst town.

Martin Huestis writes of the Wallace quarry:

Quite recently after an absence of 56 years I spent several days in my native Wallace. I was much interested in the great free stone quarries. They are on a part of my father's farm where when a boy I put the horses and cows to pasture. No stone appeared on the surface then. My father sold about six acres to Wm. McNab, Customs Officer and Magistrate, father of Brenton A. McNab the well known journalist. In digging post holes for a board fence his workman found across the front of his lot two feet through the earth smooth flat stone. Mr. McNab opened the quarry, worked it for some years when it was transferred to a Company. It is now worked by the Peter Lisle Construction Co. of Montreal. For some years the truck loads of stone were sent down on a rail line to Wallace Station. It is sent overland to Montreal almost as it comes out of the quarry to be there sawn up and polished for the market. In past years a large quantity of stone was shipped to Boston and other U.S. ports from the well known Barry Quarries on Wallace River. The Province Building was built of stone from that quarry.

The original quarry was opened in 1863 by Mr McNab, who later sold it to the Huestis Wallace Greystone Company in 1872. Richard was one of the original partners in this scheme and also became the manager of the works. The family lived in Wallace until Richard's death at age 55, in 1877. By this time the children were all in their twenties, and his son Sidney took over as manager of the quarry.

Augusta Huestis moved back to Amherst, where she is found in both the 1881 and 1891 censuses. She appears to have maintained her own household. She passed away just before the turn of the century. I believe that both of her daughters lived their whole lives in Amherst, so she would have had the company of children and grand-children.

For many years Richard Huestis was the Clerk of the Peace for Cumberland County, and also a Justice of the Peace. I am not sure exactly what those two offices were in the context of the 1850's and 60's in Nova Scotia, but I expect that they were not full-time jobs.


Mary Amelia Pugsley Huestis [H1231] (1850-1925) m. Arthur Davison, a son of the shipbuilding Davison family from Wallace. They lived all their lives in Amherst, where Mr Davison was the Clerk of the County Court until his death late in the century. In the 1901 census Mary Davison is listed as head of her household, which also included her son Richard, age 23, a lawyer. Son Clarence is married in 1901 and has his own family; works as a telegrapher. Daughter Emma married William Holmes in 1905.

  • Clarence Osborn Davison [H12311] (c.1875- )
  • Richard H. (Bertie) Davison [H12312] (c. 1877- )
  • Emma Augusta Davison [H12313] (c.1881- )

Sarah E. Fulton Huestis, known as Bessie [H1233] (1855- ) m. William Clifford Greenfield. He worked in Amherst as a merchant, in the business with his father.

  • Helen Florence Greenfield

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