Etter, Benjamin

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Donald C. Mackay, “ETTER, BENJAMIN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/etter_benjamin_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Watchmaker, silversmith, office holder, militia officer, and shipowner; b. 1763 in Braintree, Mass., son of Peter Etter; m. first 19 May 1789 Mary Bessonett in Halifax; m. secondly there 8 Jan. 1798 Margaret Elizabeth Tidmarsh; m. thirdly there 14 March 1818 Sarah Holmes; d. there 23 Sept. 1827.
    • Benjamin Etter’s father emigrated to the Thirteen Colonies from Bern, Switzerland, in 1737, settling first in Philadelphia and later, in 1752, in Braintree, where he earned his living as a weaver. Peter Etter remained loyal to the crown after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and with the evacuation of Boston in March 1776 he and his family of seven left Boston for Halifax in one of the transports carrying troops and civilian refugees.
    • By 1780 Benjamin was working in Halifax as an apprentice with his elder brother Peter, a watchmaker. In 1784 he received a grant of 100 acres in Chester Township, but since he failed to improve the land it was escheated in 1811. Benjamin was placed in charge of the Halifax shop but, as he had completed his apprenticeship, he soon began working independently as a watchmaker in a shop on Hollis Street. 
    • Etter was a prominent figure in Halifax society. On 31 March 1795 he had been appointed clerk of the market, from 1796 to 1808 he was an officer in the Nova Scotia militia, and he served as an honorary aide-de-camp to Prince Edward Augustus, commander of the forces in the Maritime provinces.
    • He was evidently prosperous financially, for by 1800 he and James Woodill had purchased the armed brig Earl of Dublin and obtained her letters of marque as a privateer. Her first cruise proved successful and with his profits he joined William Duffus and others in buying the 135-ton armed schooner General Bowyer, a former American privateer, prize to the Earl of Dublin. With 14 guns and a crew of 80, the General Bowyer captured two schooners, the Peggy and the Nancy, the Spanish ship Nostra Signora del Carmen, and a quantity of specie including gold bullion, all in one profitable cruise “against H.M.’s enemies.” It was probably because of the profits he made in privateering that Etter was financially comfortable enough to build in 1820–21 one of the finest houses in Halifax, Belle Vue, at the corner of North and Gottingen streets.
  • Son of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=2645
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78644671/benjamin-etter