Adam Wise and the Former Black Community of Lake George

Originally published in The Officers’ Quarters, a publication of the York Sunbury Historical Society

“There are Black people buried on my property,” blurted Wilma Donnelly, a senior member of the Harvey Regional Heritage and Historical Association, at one of their monthly meetings. In an area brimming with genealogies and stories of the history of the area, this was not one of the better-known stories. Black historical figures in the Harvey York County region? Burials on farms? 

Further questions posed to Mrs Donnelly revealed that the location was near Lake George, in an area now known as Donnelly’s Settlement in Prince William, south of the St John River. Passed down family stories mentioned Isaac Francis, who lived on one of the properties in the area, and that there were three graves in the burial site. The name Adam Wise was also mentioned. 

Armed with names and a location, the search began. The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) website and cadastral maps yielded land petitions and grants in the area linked to the Francis and Wise family names; a small community of five properties emerged in the heart of Donnelly’s Settlement.

In the 1820s, crown land in the Lake George area was surveyed and divided into 100-acre properties, then allocated to petitioners. Many of them were Irish Catholics with family names like Donnelly, McMurray and Trainor, but there were also a few Black petitioners. Joseph Francis and Adam Wise were two of them, granted two lots each, numbered 21 and 22, and 24 and 25, respectively. Lot 23, consisting of 100 acres, lying between the Francis and Wise properties, was granted to Andrew Rush, although it has not been proven whether he was Black. However, Andrew Rush sold his property to James Deboice, a proven Black family. The location of these properties is shown in white in the cadastral map shown below.^[1]

Who were these people? Knowing the names and locations provided sufficient information. to develop summary biographies of the initial grantees and their families, by consulting land, church, and census records. 

Adam Wise 

Adam Wise, grantee of lots 24 and 25, was a man of African descent who was born around 1768 in Virginia. According to his 1823 land petition,^[2] he came to New Brunswick with the Jacob Ellegood family in 1790, Loyalists from Norfolk, Virginia. Mr Wise had initially petitioned the New Brunswick government in 1818^[3] for a land grant, which was subsequently allocated to him in 1824^[4] upon meeting the granting program conditions involving clearing a minimum portion of the land and building living quarters. 

To provide context, after the American Revolution, soldiers who fought with the British were persecuted in the newly formed United States of America. Many migrated with their families to other countries to rebuild their lives after having land, livelihoods, and sense of security taken away. Tens of thousands ended up in Nova Scotia in 1783- 84, with many eventually settling along the St. John River. New Brunswick was partitioned off from Nova Scotia in 1784 in order to better accommodate the influx of Loyalists.

Among these Loyalist settlers were many Black Loyalists, some enslaved, others freed slaves. Many had joined the British forces to escape slavery because of a program that promised freedom to those who fought on the British side. At the time, there were no specific laws governing slavery in New Brunswick, although Canadian and British abolitionist voices were becoming more and more powerful. By 1833, slavery was banned throughout the British Empire, including New Brunswick.^[5]

Enslaved to Col. Jacob Ellegood 

Additional research reveals that Adam Wise was married to Cloe, a woman who also came from Norfolk, Virginia. As well, an Anglican Church record states that in Prince William and Kingsclear, New Brunswick, Rector Frederick Dibblee on “July 28, 1798 – Baptised 2 Black Children, the Property of Col. Ellegood. Their Names Sally & Adam Wise.^“[6]  

This record provides key evidence that the Wise family was enslaved at that time. Adam Wise Junior is also mentioned in some of the official land transaction documents along with Adam Wise Senior. No further records regarding Sally Wise have turned up. 

Adam Wise became free sometime prior to 1818, when he petitioned for land with 15 other people seeking land grants.^[7] Many of the petitioners, if not all, were of African descent, including those known by last names Cornelison, Debois, Hart, Hector, Kendall, McCarty, and Peters. 

Mr Wise had some challenges in getting his grant approved. Unexpectedly, he discovered that his final application for ownership had not been passed along to the proper authorities. In 1823, he hurriedly submitted another petition to reinstate the grant, explaining in his own words 

That to your Petitioners great surprise, he finds on enquiring at the Secretary’s Office that his application for the above lots has never been presented altho’ left with Mr Lockwood for that purpose.^[8]

This time, the petition was successful, and the land was fully granted to him in 1824.^[9] According to details of the grant, by 1824, he was married and had eight children. A few years later, in 1829, the front half of lot 25 was sold to the son of Adam and Cloe Wise, Adam Wise Junior.^[10]

Adam Wise died in 1839. His will, having been written in 1836, was executed on December 31, 1839.^[11] The executors were his wife, Cloe Wise, and his son, Simon Peter Wise. The residence lots were willed to his wife, Cloe.^[12] The mentioned children were Simon Peter, Adam, Charlotte, Mary, Rebecca, and Ann, two less than the eight indicated in his 1824 petition for lots 24 and 25. Rebecca Wise married George Henry Albert in 1835 and moved to Bangor, Maine.

The Wise family continued to live on their Lake George property until 1841, when Cloe and Simon Wise sold their portion of lots 24 and 25, totalling 150 acres, to Barney Kinney.^[13] Adam Wise Junior and his wife, Suzannah (Albert) Wise, had sold their portion of lot 25 to John Duboice in 1837.^[14] John Duboice was likely a member of the Deboice family to be described below; they then bought property in Jacksontown, Wakefield, in Carleton County, which was immediately sold to Adam Wise, Jr. ^[15]

The 1850 census record^[16] shows Cloe Wise living in Bangor, Maine, with her daughter, Rebecca Wise, and son-in-law Henry Albert. Rebecca and Henry’s story is documented elsewhere in this publication.^[17] Other family members married into New Brunswick Black families, such as Peters, Albert, and Watters. They scattered to other parts of New Brunswick and the United States.

Joseph Francis 

A newspaper obituary for William Francis was published on Feb 16, 1894, in The Gleaner^[18] stating: 

Central Kingsclear (York Co.) Feb. 15 – William Francis, a much respected colored gentleman who has long been a resident of this place, passed away after a long siege of illness. His father and mother came out with the Loyalists, his father with the Odell’s and mother with the Dibblee’s.

His father was Joseph Francis, who petitioned for land in York County in 1823^[19] and was awarded lots 21 and 22, totalling 180 acres in 1825.^[20].William Francis was identified as one of Joseph Francis’s sons in a land transaction in 1838,^[21] when Joseph’s wife Hannah, sons Isaac and William, and other family members sold lots 21 and 22 to Arthur and Robert Henry for 100 pounds. At that point in time, Joseph was no longer in the picture, presumably having passed away. 

After selling the property, census and land transaction records document Hannah as living with family members in the Kingsclear area until after the 1871 Census.^[22] Her children married into the Leek and Peters families; others remained unmarried. 

William Francis’s obituary stated that his father came to New Brunswick with the Odell family, while his mother came with the Dibblees. According to the Book of Negroes,^[23] Loyalists Fyler and Polly Dibblee escorted Tom Hyde, a free Black, and 9-year-old Sukey, an indentured servant. They were the only two Black people on record associated with the Dibblee family. None were evident living with Fyler’s brother Frederick Dibble, who settled in Woodstock, New Brunswick. Is it possible that Hannah is Sukey? 

The William Francis obituary also did not specify which Odell family accompanied Joseph Francis from the United States. The Book of Negroes records Joe, age 14, arriving on the Caron and ‘owned’ by Loyalist Daniel Odel.^[24] Is Joe actually Joseph Francis? 

Andrew Rush 

The initial grant for lot 23 was allocated to Andrew Rush in 1830.^[25] Andrew Rush fought with the British Loyalists in the American Revolution. In a previous petition made in 1823,^[26] unsuccessfully requesting lots 15 and 17 in Dumfries (Prince William), Mr Rush stated that he was a native of New Jersey and had fought in South Carolina. In 1833,^[27] Andrew Rush sold lot 23 to James Deboice. He later bought another property in the Lake George area, which he then resold after a few years. 

In 1838,^[28] Andrew Rush petitioned for a military pension, stating that he had fought in the American Revolutionary War with the South Carolina Light Dragoons. He thus drew an annual pension until his death on September 15, 1855,^[29] when he was living with John Rosborough.

So far, none of the consulted records explicitly state that Andrew Rush was Black nor that he had family. However, an Andrew Rush was a petitioner in a 1785^[30] petition for land north of Saint John with 14 other petitioners, including John Conley, Thomas Hide, and Edward Burr. A number of these petitioners are recorded as Black men in the Book of Negroes. 

Deboice

In 1833 [31], Andrew Rush sold his 100-acre property, located between the Francis and Wise families, to James Deboice (spelt variously as Dubois, Deboise) and others.

James Deboice married Julia Bean on 13 Dec 1834^[32] in Prince William, with witnesses being Simon Wise and Joseph Frances (mentioned previously), who lived on neighbouring lots. On April 5, 1842,^[33] James Deboice and wife, Elvia, sold Lot 23 to John Rigar. Could Elvia and Julia have been the same person?

In the 1851 Census^[34] of New Brunswick, James Debois is described as a “Negrow” labourer in Woodstock, Carleton Co. Other household members were his wife, “Mrs Debois”, and children Frederick, EP, and Levina. Charlotte Wise, daughter of Adam Wise, was also living with them. Mrs Debois, at age 19, was likely Hannah Maria Johnstone, whom he married on October 17, 1850.^[35] The children were most likely those from his first wife, Julia (Bean) Deboice.

The death of Deacon James Deboice was reported in 1895^[36] in the Carleton Sentinel. The obituary stated that he was born in Prince William, died at the age of 86, and was a member of the Baptist church of Prince William; he left behind a wife, one sister, one son, four daughters, three sons-in-law, grand and great- grandchildren. The Deboice family members married into other Black families, such as Cornelison, Winslow, Nales, and Vaughn, settling in other New Brunswick locations as well as the United States. 

John Deboice, who bought a portion of lot 25 from Adam and Suzannah Wise (mentioned previously), sold his lot in 1840 to James Gilgrist.^[37]

Today 

The initial Black community of Lake George migrated away from the area before 1851, settling in other parts of New Brunswick, Canada, and the United States. Today, the properties are partially farmed. At the front of the former Wise property (lot 25) now stands St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church, with an accompanying graveyard. This land was turned over to the church in the latter part of the 19th century.

The unmarked burial ground mentioned at the beginning of this article was on lot 22, the Francis property. Burial on private property was relatively common back in those days, for a variety of reasons. Black people, in particular, had limited access to church burial grounds due to the attitudes and policies of segregation in early New Brunswick history.

Recently, a group from the Harvey Regional Heritage and Historical Association toured the site of the burial ground on the Donnelly property. We were lucky to have with us that day, Ralph Thomas and Dr Mary Louise McCarthy-Brandt, both of the New Brunswick Black History Society. Family oral history suggests that there are three people buried there, but who they are exactly is not known. Though respectfully tended for many years by owners of the property, the site is now grown over with trees, with no remaining markers. Also found on the site is an old well and an old rock foundation of a cabin, presumed to be relics of that initial era of habitation.