Blandford, Nova Scotia

Blandford is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Chester Municipal District on the Aspotogan Peninsula on the Lighthouse Route (Nova Scotia Route 329). Blandford originally included the present day communities of New Harbour, Upper Blandford, and Deep Cove.

The community is probably named after John Church Hill (1650-1722), Marquess of Blandford.

One of the first settlers of Blandford was George Casper Zinck (c.1764 - ), the son of a German-speaking immigrant. George first lived in Lunenburg and then after the American Raid on Lunenburg (1782) during the American Revolution, George moved to nearby Rose Bay before finally settling in Blandford at the age of 20 (1784). He married and then had his first child the following year.

Along with German settlers, there were also Jewish settlers to Blandford. More likely at least some of the Jewish family Levy in this part of Nova Scotia are descended from Nathaniel Levy who was in Halifax by 1759.

Apparently after his first wife died in 1771 he moved to Chester where he married again 1773 (Susannah Tufts). They had four children before he died in May 1787 at Chester. One of his sons, Gershom, married in 1796 (Catherine Barbara Graves). They had three sons before he died in 1801 at Chester. Two of his sons, David (born 1797) and Nathan (born 1798) settled in Tancook Island during the early nineteenth century. It has been suggested that Nathaniel Levy was the son of Nathan Levy, a Jewish merchant who was in Philadelphia in 1746 (Punch, 1981). It may be that Nathaniel Levy was in the colony to oversee the interests of the firm Levy and Frank of Philadelphia, one of the firms that provided the new colony with supplies and credit (Fergusson, 1971:46).

The village of Deep Cove was first settled by John (Johannes) Meisner (1789-1872) and John Seaburg (Seaboyer) in 1838. John Meisner owned the first gristmill which was built on the north side of Deep Cove. Meisner’s Point on the Upper Blandford road still retains his name.

The person who Mathias Hill, Bovens Lake, and Jimmy’s Island in Deep Cove is named after is unknown.

When settlers first arrived at Blandford, in the winter they were able to walk over the ice to Tancook and to Chester. In 1845, Charles Lordly, Esq had goods hauled from Shoal Cove (Blandford) by three pairs of oxen and two horses over the ice to Tancook. The ice was cut with axes to a depth of two feet without finding water. The following month he had molasses and barrels of four hauled over the ice to Chester. Mr. Arch Zinck reported the last time people were able to walk to Tancook over the ice was 1932.

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