Simeon Perkins

merchant, diarist and politician.

Colonel Simeon Perkins was born in Norwich, Connecticut, one of sixteen children of Jacob Perkins and Jemima Leonard. He came to Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in May 1762 as part of the New England Planter migration to Nova Scotia.Converse, Charles Allen (1905). "Some of the Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Converse, Jr.", Vol. II, pp. 833-34. Boston: Eben Putnam.] In Liverpool, Perkins immediately began trading in fish and lumber and forged trading ties with New England, Newfoundland, Europe and the West Indies. During the American Revolution, he invested in several privateer ships. [Horwood, Harold and Butts, Ed (1988). "Bandits and Privateers: Canada in the Age of Gunpowder", p. 49. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Formac Publishing Company. ISBN 0887801579.] He remained loyal to the British Crown. He kept a diary from 1766 until his death that paints an important portrait of the man and his times in colonial Nova Scotia.

A born leader, he held public office for a long period representing Queens County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1765 to 1768 and from 1770 to 1799 . He held twenty-seven government positions in his life time, none of which paid including justice of the peace, colonel of the militia, and judge in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Quarter Sessions.cite encyclopedia
last = Fergusson
first = C Bruce
authorlink =
title = Simeon Perkins
encyclopedia = Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
volume =
pages =
publisher =
location =
date = 1983
url = http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2602
accessdate = 2008-09-30 ] .

He had nine children from two marriages. His first wife, Abigail Backus, died four weeks after the birth of his first son Roger. He remarried in 1775 to Mrs. Elizabeth Headley (Young) who had been widowed two months before the birth of her daughter Ruth. His home is open to the public and guided tours are given from June until October. It was purchased by the Province of Nova Scotia and opened as a museum at the suggestion of the author Thomas Raddall who lived in Liverpool. [ [http://www.library.dal.ca/archives/trela/letters/337harvey4feb47.htm#perkinshouse "Thomas Raddall Selected Correspondence: An Electronic Edition"] ]

Further reading

* "Early Liverpool and its Diarist" by C. Bruce Fergusson (1963).
* "The Diary of Simeon Perkins" (5 volumes), edited by Harold A. Innis et al., published by The Champlain Society (1947-78).
* "The Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution: Excerpts from Simeon Perkins' Diary (1774-1782)" Queens County Museum (1992).

References

External links

* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2602 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]

* [http://museum.gov.ns.ca/peh/ Perkins House Museum]

* [http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/charlotte_taylor/Folder1/Diary_of_Simeon_Perkins.htm Excerpts from his diary]

* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~canns/queens/qcdiary1.html Index of Genealogical Extracts From Simeon Perkins' Diary ]