Pushee, Nathan

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Phyllis R. Blakeley, “PUSHEE, NATHAN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pushee_nathan_7E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Farmer, miller, and militia officer; b. October 1758 in Lunenburg, Mass., eldest child of Nathan Pushee and Elizabeth Priest; m. 20 April 1787 Jane Porter, née Brown, and they had nine children; d. 31 Oct. 1838 in Newport, N.S.
    • At the outbreak of the American revolution in April 1775 Nathan Pushee enlisted as a private in Gardner’s Massachusetts Battalion and took part in the battle of Bunker Hill. In March 1776 he was transferred to the Life Guard protecting General George Washington, serving with it until the end of the year.
    • On 14 April 1780 Pushee was among the victims of another successful surprise attack by the British when he was captured in the engagement of Moncks Corner.
    • Taken to Charleston, S.C., Pushee and more than 500 comrades faced almost certain death from disease and poor food in British prisons, and in order to escape this fate they agreed to enlist in the British army provided they did not have to fight their fellow Americans. Pushee joined the Duke of Cumberland’s Regiment, a provincial unit, and was sent to Jamaica, where he became a sergeant in Captain Gideon White’s company. At the end of the war those who had served in British regiments could not return to the United States because they were excluded from the terms of amnesty. The commander of Pushee’s regiment, Lord Charles Greville Montagu, arranged for those men who wished land to be taken to Nova Scotia, and they arrived in December 1783. In the spring of 1784 they went to Chedabucto Bay, where the following year Pushee received 200 acres in Manchester Township.
    • Pushee and some fellow soldiers did not remain in the area long, since they wanted to find more fertile lands closer to the water. They went to Antigonish Harbour, where disbanded soldiers under Lieutenant-Colonel Timothy Hierlihy had already settled at Town Point. The attempt to establish a village at Town Point failed, and Pushee moved to the rich intervale lands on the south side of the West River, on what became St Andrew’s Street in the town of Antigonish. The Napoleonic Wars brought a demand for timber in Britain, and Antigonish flourished because it was at the junction of two rivers down which timber could be floated. Pushee erected a sawmill, and sold it in 1818 to his son Henry and John G. Peabody . Considered by some as the founder of Antigonish.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=15278
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173931025/nathan-pushee