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Fourth Generation
311. Jonathan
Stewart LEONARD340
was born in 1735 in Easton, Bristol Co., MA. He died on 4 May 1802
in Wilmot, Nova Scotia. Was he born in 1735/36 in Easton, MA? There
was a Jonathan Leonard born29 July 1734 in Bridgewater to Joseph Leonard and
Mary Packard (SolomonLeonard line) who was not this Jonathan.
He went to Nova Scotia in 1760. According to ECL, he served in aConnecticut
regiment at the siege of Louisburg prior to that. He soldhis land at Annapolis,
NS, and moved to Wilmot, Nova Scotia, where hebuilt a saw mill. A Jonathan Leonard
of Easton is listed as "went fromHalifax March 18, 1760, but that probably
would have been a differentJonathan. (Source: NEHGS, 1874, p. 413-15, "Massachusetts
Soldiers atHalifax in 1759," A List of Capt. Josiah Thacher's Company in
Col. JohnThomas' Regiment. Landed in Halifax May 11, 1759. Capt. Josiah Thacher,Yarmouth,
MA.) According to CT Historical Society Collections, Vol. IX,French-Indian War
Rolls, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, a Jonathan Leonard enlisted 31March 1758, discharged 3
November 1758, 6th Co., Capt. Gaylord; enlisted28 March 1759, discharched 16
December 1759, 6th Co., Capt. Gaylord.,enlisted 24 March 1760, discharged 21
? 1760, 7th Co., Capt. Gaylord;enlisted 1 May 1761, discharged 2 December 1761,
6th Co., Capt. Hierliky.
More information about the family is in the History of Annapolis.
A descendant of Jonathan's now lives on his former property in Wilmot.He and
his wife are buried there.
A synopsis of how Jonathan came to Nova Scotia, courtesy of BarbaraLeonard Bishop,
a direct descendant (2005):
In 1755 the British colonial government, in cahoots with New Englandsettlers
who were constantly clashing with the French and native peoples,deported its
Acadian population. In 1758, Nova Scotia was givenresponsibility for governing
the former Acadian area, clearing the wayfor New Englanders to come and take
possession of these empty and fertilelands. The first shipload arriving on May
17, 1760. These NewEnglanders, as well as some from Germany and elsewhere, whom
NovaScotians call "Planters," eventually grew to 8,000 in a year or
so.
Jonathan fought at Louisbourg in 1758. He went home and was discharged,but in
1761 he re-enlisted and was again sent to Nova Scotia. In 1764 hemarried Sarah
Dodge in Granville Township, Annapolis Co., NS. Heapparently came alone, and
the ship's passenger list, on which he tookpassage, has not been found. All
of the other Granville planters camefrom Massachusetts. Family tradition is
that he came from Lyme, CT. Heand his wife lived on land that her father, Capt.
Josiah Dodge, gavethem. He bought and sold land there in Granville.
When the flood of loyalists from New England began in the late 1770's andearly
1780's, many of the Planters in Granville sold their properties andmoved to the
newly opened Wilmot grant. Jonathan ran his mill and innhere. His homestead
overlooks the Annapolis River and behind theproperty is the site of an old Acadian
mill. The village on the site wascalled "Paradise Terrestre" by the
Acadians, and hence the current name,"Paradise."
Jonathan and Sarah in "Mayflower Families..., Vol 2, James Chilton,Richard
More, Thomas Rogers, page 134?
Jonathan is mentioned in History of Annapolis, p. 228, first as applyingfor rights
in 1777, and also: "...Jonathan Leonard left descendants whostill occupy
the lot assigned to him; and it was Leonard's hotel, atParadise, where the Duke
of Kent lunched on a fine Sunday, while on hisway to New Brunswick, via Annapolis,
in 1794, an event which has become atradition to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren..."
(History ofthe County of Annapolis by W.A. Calsek, 1897.) Jonathan Stewart
LEONARD and Sarah Maria DODGE were married on 1 Nov 1764 in Granville, Annapolis,
Nova Scotia. Sarah Maria DODGE (daughter
of Josiah DODGE and Susannah KNOWLTON) was born on 24 May 1749 in Lunenburg,
Worcester Co. MA. She died on 15 Jul 1823 in Wilmot, Nova Scotia.
Sarah Leonard's will was probated 23 Sept 1824. Jonathan Stewart LEONARD and
Sarah Maria DODGE had the following children:
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