Deblois, Stephen Wastie

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: David A. Sutherland, “DEBLOIS, STEPHEN WASTIE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=2131
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman, office holder, and politician; b. 16 Jan. 1780 in New York City, eldest son of George Deblois and Sarah Deblois; he had two sons and a daughter with Jane Catherine Witham, whom he later married; d. 26 Dec. 1844 in Halifax.
    • Stephen Wastie Deblois’s father, an Englishman of Huguenot descent, emigrated in 1761 from Oxford to Salem, Mass., and set up as a general merchant. Forced to flee Salem in 1775 because of his loyalist beliefs, he took refuge in Halifax and in 1777 moved to New York City, where he continued in trade. Towards the end of the war, George Deblois returned to Halifax. He resumed his career as a merchant and began to edge into the local oligarchy, becoming a justice of the peace in 1793. His premature death in 1799 precipitated a family crisis but Sarah Deblois assumed control of her husband’s firm. Stephen was probably working in the family business before 1808, the year in which his name first appears in newspaper advertisements as head of the firm. 
    • When peace returned he continued as an auctioneer, concentrating on the sale of foodstuffs and related commodities imported from the United States. His activities, which represented a major innovation within the Halifax market, provoked the ire of more traditional merchants, who complained that auctioneers constituted unfair competition because they required little capital in order to operate and were in effect agents for merchants outside Nova Scotia. 
    • Deblois’s entrepreneurial prominence was reflected in his election to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce and a term as vice-president of that organization. He invested in and served as a director of such enterprises as the Halifax East India Company, the Shubenacadie Canal Company, the Albion Fire Insurance Company, the Nova Scotia Marine Insurance Company, and the Bank of British North America. As his business career developed, Deblois accumulated public and honorific offices such as commissioner of the Halifax Commons, commissioner of public cemeteries, marshal of the Vice-Admiralty Court, and vice-president of the St George’s Society. In addition, he served one term in the House of Assembly as member for Halifax Township.
  • Son of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=1562
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210694756/stephen-wastie-deblois