Messervy Stories

For some time,  Reuben Alfred Messervey  was on my list of “Still Researching”.  The son of John Messervey and Sarah Hoar, he appeared in Census records and his marriage to Fanny Bell in 1876 in Halifax, Nova Scotia was registered in the Nova Scotia vital records. However, on both his marriage record and in the 1871 Census, his place of birth is indicated as the United States, in fact, on the marriage registration it looks like “Winstead, Conn.”  All his siblings were born in Halifax, Nova Scotia after his parents permanently relocated from Sandy Point, Newfoundland.  However, with his father’s merchant trader background, it was not impossible that he was born in the US during a trading trip in 1853.  To date, I have found no record of Reuben’s birth despite the availability of many birth records in the US.  Perhaps John and Sarah did not want to record his birth in the US, but could not record it in Canada either.  I am still looking! ...

Philippe Messervy (b. 1769 in St. Saveur, Jersey, Channel Islands) is acknowledged as the first permanent resident of Sandy Point, Newfoundland, and indeed is the likely forebear of all those of Messervy heritage in Newfoundland and eastern Canada.  He was the son of Philippe (b. 1743) and Rachel Bertram (b. 1740) of Jersey.  Unfortunately, records consulted to date do not provide any conclusive evidence of Philippe’s arrival.  An early reference is Thomas White’s documentation of Bay St.George settlers fishing and trading activity in 1808.  Mr. Messervy is noted as having a 60t vessel with 4 men, and traded furs, cod, and salmon to Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Other documentation includes: §   Ledwell, cited in Downer (p.27) suggests that both Jersey and English settlers were in the area of Sandy Point about 1783 §   Cormack, W.E. visited Bay St.George in 1822 and stayed with Philippe Messervy, noting that he had been e...