Cunard, Sir Samuel

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Phyllis R. Blakeley, “CUNARD, Sir SAMUEL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cunard_samuel_9E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Merchant, shipowner, and entrepreneur; b. 21 Nov. 1787 at Halifax, N.S., second child of Abraham Cunard and Margaret Murphy; m. 4 Feb. 1815 at Halifax Susan Duffus (1795–1828), and they had two sons and seven daughters; d. 28 April 1865 in London, England.
    • Samuel Cunard’s father was a descendant of German Quakers who had immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 17th century. His mother’s family had immigrated from Ireland to South Carolina in 1773 and to Nova Scotia with the loyalists a decade later. About 1812 the firm of A. Cunard and Son was founded to enter the timber and West Indian trade. It had been granted considerable excellent timber land in Cumberland County, some of which was free and some purchased, and was selling timber abroad, chiefly in Britain, and to the Halifax Dockyard.
    • As an able-bodied young man during the War of 1812 Samuel volunteered for service in the 2nd battalion of the Halifax Regiment of militia and eventually became a captain. By the end of hostilities between Britain and the United States in 1815, Samuel had become accustomed to conducting business in a wartime economy. Immediately after the war the Cunard firm continued to expand. That summer the Cunards purchased at a public sale for £1,325 two lots in the north suburbs of Halifax which were no longer needed by the military, in order to construct wharves and warehouses.
    • Cunard was gratefully remembered for employing his capital in shipbuilding activities in the hard times of the 1830s because this enterprise had circulated money “where there would otherwise be poverty and stagnation.” He could be ruthless to a rival or an enemy, but, although legally he could have refused to assume Joseph’s debts, the Halifax firm gradually made payments to the creditors year after year.
    • In the opinion of William James Stairs, Cunard was “the ablest man I have ever known as a merchant of Halifax” – “he made both men and things bend to his will.” His competitiveness and his obsession not to waste time were important characteristics of his personality. Peter Lynch, a prominent Halifax barrister, recalled Cunard as cool, calculating, a man of keen perception whose whole mind was devoted to carrying out any project he had in hand. Nevertheless Cunard was admired at home and abroad as a successful colonial and for his contributions to the steamship trade. He was one of the first native Nova Scotians to build a business empire, but, like the successful British businessmen and officials who made their fortunes in the colonies, he retired to England where his descendants settled. True to his family motto “By perseverance” he had overcome obstacles to become an English merchant prince.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=11503
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12448/samuel-cunard