Hall - Blackwood - McKeen - Saunders in Canada:Information about David McKeen
David McKeen (b. 1749, d. 1830)
Notes for David McKeen:
David McKeen in a petition to Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Sherbrooke said that in 1798 "then residing in the township of Truro with his family having heard that there were un-granted lands of a good quality on the St. Mary's River, he with several others in company, at their own expense explored the said River and finding a Tract of good land about the forks of said River which they then expected to have been vacant or un-granted, they were at the expense of procuring a survey of the grant to Lyons and other to ascertain the certainty thereof, which cost your petitioner and his said associates upwards of seventy Pounds... the expected Tract of land proved to be within the aforesaid Grant, which your Petitioner and some of his said associates purchased immediately and were the first Settlers upon the said River, and bore all the hardships of settling in so remote a situation without, at that time, any road or communication with any other part of the Province, still in expectation of obtaining Government land adjoining..."
Source:PANS Land Papers: Un-granted Land Petitions 1815.
David was married to Jennet Taylor, a sister of Robert and William, and had eight sons and three daughters, all born in Truro.
David McKeen declared that he had erected the first Grist mill in the settlement [on land he purchased from James Fulton in Lower Village] and "has been at considerable expense in maintaining her in the infant settlement". He had two sons still living with him, James McKeen, 21 years old, and Matthew McKeen, 19.David lost the mill in a heavy freshet and moved to Saint Mary's in 1802.
David McKeen was born in Connecticut of John McKeen and Martha Kergill his wife who removed to Truro in Nova Scotia with their family in 1762 where David McKeen married Jennet, daughter of Matthew Taylor and Elizabeth his wife and sister to Robert and William Taylor aforesaid. They had born to them in Truro eight sons and three daughters. See Register of Births for those living in Saint Mary's.
SOURCE Settlement of St. Mary's River.
More About David McKeen:
Burial: 1830, St. Mary's River, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Cemetery: St. Mary's West River.
Christening: 1749, Lyme Presbyterian, New London, Connecticutt, USA.
More About David McKeen and Jennet Taylor:
Church: Truro Presbyterian.
Marriage: October 22, 1773, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Children of David McKeen and Jennet Taylor are:
- +John Cargill McKeen, b. April 15, 1775, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, d. November 16, 1854, St. Mary's River, Nova Scotia, Canada418.
- Matthew McKeen, b. March 11, 1777, d. November 17, 1790.
- William McKeen, b. February 10, 1779, d. 1798.
- +Elizabeth McKeen, b. February 2, 1781, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, d. 1841, Newtown, Nova Scotia, Canada.
- +Rosannah McKeen, b. November 30, 1783, St. Mary's River, Nova Scotia, Canada, d. October 30, 1814.
- +Samuel McKeen, b. February 11, 1786, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, d. 1826, St. Mary's River, Nova Scotia, Canada.
- +David McKeen, b. May 22, 1788, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, d. March 1, 1852, Clinton County, Ohio, USA.
- Robert McKeen, b. 1790, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, d. 1809.
- James McKeen, b. 1792, d. date unknown.
- Matthew McKeen, b. 1794, d. date unknown.