Manuscript cancelled Nova Scotia #3, 3 pence blue, on 18 August 1859 cover from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Truro, Nova Scotia. Addressed to Miss Asenath L. Wilson, Normal School, Truro, N.S., with backstamps from Yarmouth, AU 18 1859, H(alifax), AU 22 1859, and Truro, AU 23 1859.
Asenath Louisa Wilson had just celebrated her 17th birthday when she received this letter. She had been born on August 17th, 1842, in Barrington, Shelburne County. It is quite possible the letter was posted on her birthday at a local post office where it had been manuscript cancelled, and that Yarmouth was the first transit point to backstamp it a day later. Asenath was a student at the Provincial Normal School in Truro. The entrance requirement for admittance to the Normal School at the time was grade IX. So, it was not unusual for sixteen-year-old Asenath to be a student there.
Asenath's father, Joseph Wilson, had died 2 May 1842, three months before her birth, leaving her mother, Asenath L. Crowell Wilson, aged 33, a widow with the infant Asenath and her four brothers. One of her brothers, Ebenezer Crowell Wilson, died in August 1856, when Asenath Louisa was 14 years old. He was lost at sea from the schooner "Sunbeam". In the 1861 census for Barrington, we find the elder Asenath Wilson head of a family of 2 males and 2 females.
Asenath's father had left the family at least three ships. Her mother, Asenath, is listed as owner of the Schooner “Hazard”, built 1830, (Registration Number H84308) with a crew of 5 (11 shares), the schooner “Active”, built 1837 (Vessel Registration Number H845023) with a crew of 6 (11 shares), and the schooner “Galaxy” built 1842 (Vessel Registration Number Y851004) with a crew of 5 (8 shares).
The Provincial Normal School
The Provincial Normal School was founded by an act of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, which received royal assent on March 31, 1854. At its official opening on the "civic square" bordering Prince Street, Forrester Street, Victoria Street, and Young Street, immediately northwest of Truro's downtown core on November 14, 1855, its first principal, Alexander Forrester, described the normal school's objective to be "the training or the qualifying of teachers for the better and more efficient discharge of the duties of their important office." In 1857 a model school was opened nearby to provide facilities for teaching practice.
The establishment of the Normal School in 1855 saw a change in the licensing of teachers in Nova Scotia. The examination results at the end of each term (there were two) qualified successful candidates for one of three grades of license lettered A, B, and C. These certificates entitled the holder to a license from any Board of School Commissioners in the Province. Holders of such certificates had an advantage over other licensed teachers in that their licenses had province-wide acceptance. The Legislative specified, “All pupils shall be examined by the principal after having attended the school for a term not less than five months, and if competent, shall receive a certificate as graduate of the school, such certificate shall be of three classes, denominated A, Band C, according to the capacity of the graduate…”
Barrington, Nova Scotia
First known as Bacareau, a thriving Acadian settlement, it was completely destroyed by the British during the Expulsion. The village was rebuilt in 1761 by immigrating Cape Cod and Nantucket fishermen, who named it after Viscount Barrington, Britain's war secretary. Trade and close ties with New England meant this potential "rebels' nest" was closely watched by the navy during the American Revolution. Fishing was the primary industry, and after 1800, ships were built for the lumber and fish trade to the West Indies. Barrington's Old Meeting House, built in 1765, is the oldest extant nonconformist church in Canada.
Asenath was a descendent of Barrington Township grantee Henry Wilson who came to Barrington in 1761 in his own vessel, the "Pompey Dick" and was granted township lot #15. He built a log house near that of another grantee, Elisha Hopkins, and his fishing enterprise met immediate success. His sons Obediah, Seth, and Nehemiah (Asenath's grandfather) settled near him. Obediah carried on a large and lucrative West India business being reputed worth at one time about 80,000 pounds.
Perhaps Asenath first became interested in teaching after hearing a story told about her great-grandfather, Henry Wilson. It was said Samuel Osborne Doane Sr., the first school master in Barrington, was making arrangements to open a school at the Millstream when he received a message from Henry Wilson to come and see him about it first. He went with trembling and met a very stern reception. Possibly there were some local jealousies involved. Mr. Wilson gave Doane a chance to explain his motives in invading the neighborhood, and before the interview was over the old man was satisfied and the bottle was brought out to toast the young man's educational endeavors.
Education was important to the settlers at Barrington. A general view of school affairs in the township may be gathered from Dr. J. W. Dawson's Educational Report for N. Scotia, 1850, for the District of Barrington.
"The meeting in this District was well attended and much interest in Education was expressed by the various speakers. I lectured in the evening to a large audience at the Head of Barrington, and on the following evening at the West side of the Harbor (Passage). The schools around Barrington are on the whole, well supported and creditable. The commissioners in this district have tested the utility of district inspection by instructing their clerk, Mr. J. M. Doane to visit the schools and report on their condition. The information thus collected was found to be very useful. Barrington had in 1850, 37 schools supported by £369 from the people and £225 from the Province. The number of pupils was 700, the whole number of children being over 1000".
Asenath returned to Barrington after Normal School. She married William Sherard Hopkins (a descendant of her great-grandfather's neighbor, Elisha Hopkins), on September 24th, 1864, in Barrington. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 5 daughters. She died on September 5th, 1924, in Brass Hill, Barrington, Shelburne Co. at the age of 82, and is buried in Hillside Cemetery, Barrington.
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