Step Back in Time
Step back to the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Mi'kmaq had given Liverpool the name `Ogomkegea', meaning "place of departure." Descending the Mersey River in the spring, they would disperse along the coast to summer encampments like Port Joli. On May 6th, 1604 explorers and cartographers Samuel de Champlain and Sieur Demonts arrived in the harbour only to discover a Frenchman by the name of Rossignol illegally trading furs with the Natives, who were camped in Mersey Point and on Coffin Island. Under the monopoly granted by the King of France to Demonts, Rossignol's cargo and vessel were seized and Rossignol himself was arrested. For many years Liverpool Bay was called Port au Rossignol and in later years his name was given to the largest lake in Nova Scotia.
Following the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, Governor Charles Lawrence of Nova Scotia, in collaboration with Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, encouraged residents of New England to move to Nova Scotia, which was then considered Massachusetts' frontier. Those who came to the South Shore did so to be nearer the fishing banks. Most of Queens County's New Englanders came from Chatham and Plymouth, and many were descended from the Mayflower Pilgrims. In June of 1760 a total of fifty families, six fishing vessels, and livestock arrived to join the few families that had forged ahead of them in the previous year. They called their new home Liverpool, and by 1764 the population consisted of over 500 people.
When Liverpool township was surveyed in 1760, the original town plot was laid out on the western end of Main Street, between Brunswick and Wolfe Streets.
There were two forts built to protect Liverpool, the first was named Fort Laurence and it consisted of a blockhouse located on Laurence Street. The second, at Fort Point, was constructed during the American Revolution. It was manned by the King's Orange Rangers, who were Loyalist soldiers, mustered in Orange County, New York. In 1797 the first Courthouse was built near the Grand Parade on Fore Street, now called Main Street. Two years later a public market place was established on what was to become Market Lane, now Market Street.
Coffin Island Lighthouse was built in 1812 and Fort Point Lighthouse in 1855. The Churches of Liverpool were erected in the following years: Congregational Church "Old Zion", 1774; the Methodist in 1798; the Church of England, 1822; the Roman Catholic in 1829; the Baptist was completed 5 years later in 1834; the Salvation Army Barracks was established the latter part of the 1800s.
Education has been important since Liverpool's earliest days. A grammar school was built in 1816 and in 1864 Nova Scotia saw the arrival of the public school system. A wooden drawbridge company, which included Simeon Perkins as a shareholder, was built in 1816. It spanned the Mersey River from the end of the Old Bridge Street to Dean's Point at Bristol. A wooden bridge from Dean's Point to Market Street was erected by the Government in 1867 and was later replaced with an iron bridge in 1888.
For those local miscreants who ran afoul of the law, a new Court House was built on Church Street in 1854. This building, which still serves its original purpose, is a fine example of Doric Architecture and is now registered as a Nova Scotia Heritage Property.
The Final Resting Place
Originally known as the Congregational Cemetery, the burying grounds were officially laid out by the township proprietors in 1764, on parts of fish lots numbers thirty-four and thirty-five in letter B. The boundaries of the cemetery extended from the water's edge all the way back to Waterloo Street and encompassed approximately three and a half acres. Although not officially laid out until 1764, burials had been taking place here since 1759.
The first burial here was not that of a proprietor, but of an aboriginal man belonging to the St. John's tribe. He went by the name Joseph Quoxies and was a Mi'kmaq captain. The town people wanted to offer him a decent Christian burial, as this was the first funeral in Liverpool. Before he was buried, his companions cut off one of his hands to bring to his friends as proof of his death. The oldest stone here belongs to fourteen year old Martha Knowles, who died in 1761. She was the daughter of Cornelius Knowles, one of the original proprietors. In 1829, the back half of the cemetery was sold to the Roman Catholic Church, which was the land between Church and Waterloo Streets. Many different churches had their own burial grounds by this time and the large amount of land was not needed. Burials continued until the end of the 19th Century, when the old cemetery became full.
For many years these grounds were neglected and it was not until the efforts of some local citizens led by Dr. Henry Farish, a local and much loved physician, that the grounds were cleared of unsightly growth and a fountain was placed where the lands sloped to a hollow.
A little time spent in the cemetery reading the inscriptions on the tombstones tell us something of those who lie in their narrow graves.
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