(My apologies for any errors or omissions, this is the best we
could do with the information we had. If you have any input, just
email me and I’ll add/change/delete.)
Much of the basic information for this Hooper family tree comes
directly from the book by Martha Ford Barto, Passamaquoddy,
Genealogies of West Isles Families, 1975. In her Acknowledgements
she thanks many archivists, conservators and researchers at a wide
variety of locations in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine.
Without her untiring efforts on the behalf of the early and
enduring families of Deer Island, we would not have had this basis
for our present day research.
Mr. Dale Barteau and his wife, Mrs. Glenna (Chaffey) Barteau,
helped with and have continued and perpetuated Mrs. Barto’s
efforts and are historians and genealogists “extraordinaire”
themselves, to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude. Many wonderful
friends and family members have helped me in the preparation of
this family tree and without them, I wouldn’t have been able to
have brought this document forward. You know who you are, Cousins!
The Hooper lineage is a long one with many digressions over the
centuries. This particular line, which comes out of Richard Hooper
(b. between 1729 and 1732 and d. unknown) undoubtedly, has its
North American roots in “the Colonies”. So far the researchers
following this line have not been able to document the line back
before Richard, and not much is known about him.
It is fairly well accepted that this family tree began back in
jolly old England, probably in the 1600’s with some daring young
Hooper sprout hopping on a ship destined for what was to become
America. In all likelihood, he landed at the port, which was to
become Boston, MA, possibly in the Marblehead area.
But who he was and when he came and from what part of the United
Kingdom, is not proven fact. We have no documentation to prove who
that daring young fellow was although some of us have guesses
that’s all they are. We all fervently hope that with the
increasing number of old documents put on the web, we’ll soon have
a link which takes us back “over the pond”.
Until that time, what we know for certain is that Richard served
(in some capacity) for the Crown during the Revolutionary War. He
and his two sons, William and James, were given a land grant in
the area called L’Etang, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1784. The town is
now called St. George and the province became New Brunswick. In
order for the Crown to recognize someone with a land grant, they
had to have served the Crown, usually as a soldier.
We know a few more things about Richard’s sons, William and James.
Thanks to a brilliantly well-prepared and documented book by
Ernest Clarke, The Siege of Fort Cumberland, 1776, we find in
Appendix Two the muster roll for the Royal Fencible Americans
posted at Ft. Cumberland (originally called Ft. Beausejour) in
what is today Aulac, N.B. And listed there under the command of
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Goreham is the name Private William
Hooper who is reputed to have settled in N.B. after the disbanding
of the regiment (NAC C Series, Vol. 1893). Incidentally, his
commander was the first owner of Deer Island.
Further, on the N.B. Archives website we find in the Old Soldiers
section many documents with the signature of his widow, Mrs.
Abigail (Branch) Hooper when she collected her widow’s pension, in
her husband’s stead, from the government. In these documents she
states that they were married in Maugerville (Majorville) in 1782
and that he served in the Royal Fencible Regiment of Infantry.
William Hooper (b. 1755), son of Richard, signed an affidavit on
Deer Island in defense of Patrick Flinn’s claim for land on Deer
Island and Bar Island in 1805 stating “he has constantly
resided upon Deer Island for upwards nineteen years”. When you do
the math, it means William would have been living on the island by
1786.
William and his brother John signed a petition for land from Capt.
Thomas Farrell in 1812. The original Hooper homestead was in a
small community between the villages of Leonardville and Chocolate
Cove, called Hibernia. Its exact location is no longer known but
we can suppose as to its location because the cove is rather
small.
James Hooper (b. 1759) has been documented as having served in the
Connecticut 6th Regiment of the American Army. Lynn E. Garn,
Ph.D., while researching his Loyalist Hawkins family, found our
James Hooper. He is listed as deserting this regiment on 27
September 1777 and enlisting in the Royal Fencible Americans under
the command of Captain Phillip Bailey on the same day. He
was listed as being from New Haven, Connecticut.
In 1808 James sold his share of the original Hooper land grant in
St. George, N.B. (probably to a member of his family) and moved to
St. Andrews, N.B. It is not known if he ever married or had
children.
Putting these dates and facts into historical perspective, what do
we have?
• William serving with the RFAs in N.B. in 1776
• James leaving the American Army and joining
the RFAs in 1777
• William marrying Abigail Branch in Majorville,
N.B. in 1782
• Richard, William and James getting a land
grant, St. George, N.B. in 1784
• Richard signing a petition about his land in
St. George, N.B. in 1785
• William moving to Hibernia, Deer Island in
1786
• William signing a petition for Patrick Flinn
in 1805
• James leaving St. George for St. Andrews, N.B.
in 1808
• William and John petitioning for their land on
Deer Island in 1812
At some point William’s brother, Stephen (b. 1776), returned to
St. George indicating that he had probably been living on Deer
Island. Stephen’s line is unknown to us at this time although he
lived to be at least 75 years old.
William’s brother, Henry (b.a. 1761), settled in Leonardville,
Deer Island after marrying Abigail Tibbets. They had only one
daughter, Hannah, whose line gave us a huge clan of relatives all
over Charlotte County.
Three of William’s sons, William Henry (b. 1791), Samuel (b. 1795)
and Benjamin (b. 1802) moved to St. George, N.B. from Deer Island.
From these lines we get our “mainland” connections.
In 1838, William’s son, Henry (b. 1806), bought 19 ¾ acres of land
on the western side of Deer Island and moved his rather large
family there (eventually having 15 children with his wife Mary
Pendleton). It became known as Hooper’s Beach.
When looking through this family tree and seeing the family names
represented here through marriage, we start to realize how
intermarried the families became in order to survive on this
remote island. Remembering the only means of land transportation
being walking or using horses and rowing or sailing vessels being
our sea connections until the 20th Century.
When we look at the female Hooper line, we see the ladies of this
clan marrying into a wide range of families from the island and
the small communities around it on the mainland of New Brunswick
and Maine. Just a smattering of the more common families to whom
we are related one way or another through the Hooper ladies are:
Appleby, Butler, Calder, Chaffey, Conley, Cook, Cummings, Doughty,
Farris, Fountain, Haddon, Hanley, Hartford, Haskins, Johnson,
Johnston, Kinney, Leavitt, Leonard, Leslie, McKenney, Oliver,
Pendleton, Simpson, Stuart, and Welch.
Of course, when the Hooper gents married ladies from other lines,
they changed their names and became Mrs. Hooper; a few of these
families are:
Appleby, Barteau, Boyington, Calder, Camick, Cook, Dean, Doughty,
Eaton, Farris, French, Frye, Garrity, Grant, Henderson,
Hickey, Lambert, Leaman, Leslie, Lloyd, Lord, McAleenan, McGee,
Mitchell, Nodding, Pendleton, Phillips, Stuart, and Thorne.
It doesn’t take long to realize that many of these names are on
both sides of the family tree. This is not an uncommon phenomenon
for these rural places and times. During certain periods in Deer
Island’s history, the only way for a young person to meet and
marry anyone was within the confines of their own small community.
This meant that in some instances a Hooper brother and sister
married a Dean brother and sister and the same is true of the
Appleby’s. It is not an uncommon thing for insular island
communities and it’s very common throughout Deer Island’s history
with all of its families.
Deer Island’s history began with the local “Indian” tribes coming
from the mainland to hunt and fish and repair their boats in its
secluded and sheltered harbours. For centuries this ideallic gem
was a wild land with no year round inhabitants. The Passamaquoddy
tribe of the Abnaki nation were the main visitors. They spent
certain seasons here as proven by the many clam middens, which
have been located by archeologists in certain coves.
In 1604 when the Sieur de Monts expedition captained by Samuel de
Champlain, wintered on St. Croix Island, they had to have been
able to see Deer Island as they sailed into the St. Croix River.
Deer Island was granted to Colonel Joseph Goreham in 1767 but he
sold it to Captain Thomas Farrell in 1770. Farrell’s ownership of
the island was long and pockmarked by his unwillingness to sell or
grant portions of the island to the families who populated it.
Only after his death in 1822 did the inhabitants gain ownership to
the lands they had occupied and improved for decades.
The first English person to actually live year round on the island
is reputed to have been John Fountain and the year was 1777.
Interestingly enough, Stephen Fountain of Stamford, Conn., also
moved to the island at a later date but it is not known if they
were related.
Once the Loyalist troops from the various Revolutionay War
regiments started to be disbanded in 1783, many of them came to
this area. The original location of many of their land grants was
on the Maguadavic River but many of these grants were not good for
farming or living, so a certain percentage of these former
soldiers and their families, moved to the islands in Passamaquoddy
Bay. Their lives were not easy but they persevered and made Deer
Island into the beautiful hamlet, which it remains even to this
day.
One could say that this particular Hooper family line started by
the Loyalist Richard helped to populate this island and a great
deal of Charlotte County. Recently I have connected with many
cousins from all over Canada and the United States with Richard
Hooper as our common ancestor.
A belated “thank you” to Richard and whomever his wife was for
giving spirit to this lineage.
Materials on this page and
linked webpages within this site are © 2002-2057 by Clay
Hooper, those that have submitted materials, and those that
have participated in the HOOPER DNA PROJECT. Family researchers
and tax-exempt genealogical societies may freely link to these web
pages and/or use the material personally, as described under
copyright law. All for-profit reproduction of these electronic
pages - in any format - by any other organization or persons is
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