Nathaniel Huestis [H14]
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Nathaniel Huestis [H14] (1793-1894) m. Elizabeth Wright
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The following information on Nathaniel Huestis is reproduced from The Wrights of Bedeque, a Loyalist Family by Dorothy Muncey Haslam, Volume I & II, privately printed, Summerside 1978. A photocopy of the material and a detailed genealogy of the Nathaniel H. line was supplied to me by Robert Wilfred Huestis [H14-12-22]. Elizabeth Wright, called Betsy, was born ca. 1797 in Tryon, PEI and died in the Bedeque area. She married, ca.1819, Nathaniel Huestis, called Nattie, son of Thomas and Phoebe (Mabee) Huestis. He was born Apr 27 1793 in Remsheg (now Wallace), NS and died Jan 7 1894 in Albany PEI. He was buried Jan 11 in the Searletown Cemetery.
Betsy was about twenty when Nathaniel Huestis crossed the Strait to woo and win her hand. He was the son of Thomas Huestis (1760-1851) and Phoebe Mabee (1757-1811), a Loyalist couple who came from the same county in New York as had the Wrights. Perhaps their parents had been acquainted there. Thomas, too, had been imprisoned and had escaped. He and Phoebe reached Nova Scotia and were among the first settlers who came to Remsheg. Phoebe was born in Tappan, NY and Thomas in White Plains, NY, son of Joshua Huestis, of James, of James. (Bolton's History of Westchester County (1811), II: 737 has details on this Huestis family.) Nathaniel was a farmer in PEI. He and Betsy were living in Bedeque South West (now Middleton) when five of their children died of black diptheria within three weeks. A Charlottetown newspaper, the Islander, for Friday Feb. 17, 1843 reported with sad details: "At Bedeque South West on the 12th ult., a daughter, aged 12, and on the 19th, another daughter, aged 10, and on the 26th, another daughter, aged 7, and on the 3rd. inst, a boy aged 5 years, all children of Nathaniel Huestis. Another child lies dangerously ill." A granddaughter, Emily Huestis, who supplied much of our information on this family, gave their names: Elizabeth, (aged 12), Jessie (aged 10), Martha (aged 7), Stephen and William. [....] Another son, Lewis, born the next year and their last child, helped to bring some measure of consolation to their bereaved parents. Nattie was another Islander who was in the harbour of Miramichi in a schooner during the fire of 1825 and it was with difficulty that he escaped. Perhaps he was there with Betsy's cousin, John Wright, who also lived in South West. Nathaniel was a farmer, a self-taught mechanic, and a musician as well, with a superior, well cultivated voice. He taught singing in various parts of the Island and led the singing in the Methodist church in Bedeque for over forty years. An old gentleman, when interviewed for Bedeque history years ago, recalled: "Nattie Huestis was the precentor before the organ was put in. He would start the lines standing in the east side of the gallery. He had a tuning fork for starting the tunes and he would sometimes use his hand to beat the time." His children were also musical. One of them, when only twelve months old and still unable to talk distinctly, could sing the tune "Granville" throughout. The violin, which so frequently accompanied Nattie's voice, was bequeathed to his son John, who cared for him in his old age. Nattie is the only person recorded in this history [Wrights of PEI] who reached the century mark. Had he lived four more months he would have been one hundred and one. His faculties were good to the last. Not long before his death, Colin Wright remarked to a friend, "I went to see Uncle Nattie Huestis and found him smarter than his son John." We do not know when Elizabeth died; our last reference to her is in a letter written in 1865 by her son John, who says his mother was then at Nathaniel's in Lot 14. |
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