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Elijah West
Elijah West born 1747 in Bozrah,
CT and moved with his family to Cornwallis. His father was Capt. Stephen West, whose name is on the first Cornwallis Town
Grant. Stephen was on the Cornwallis committee for land distribution... which suggests he was a man of some significance.
He apparently worked on the original organizing of the township grants in 1759 but only moved to Cornwallis in 1761. Brother
William went to Cornwallis as well. He is a descendant of Francis West, a house carpenter by trade,
left the town of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England and came to New England, settling in Duxbury, MA, at the invitation of Mr.
Thomas of Marshfield of MA. His son, Dr. Thomas West, born 1646, was a physician and also a lawyer, reported to have
prosecuted the first murder cases on Martha’s Vineyard. Thomas’s son Abner West, born 1683, was also a carpenter
in Massachusetts; and Captain Stephen West was his youngest son.
Elijah married Esther Loomer
in Cornwallis in 1777 and raised a family of 7 children. In 1800, he sold his lands in Cornwallis and came with his wife and
three of his children to Hopewell. Records show he was a sea captain and involved in coastal trading, making many trips back
and forth across the bay. He drowned at sea in 1799 and he and his wife are both buried in the Habitant Cemetery, Wolfville,
N.S. His sons Samuel and Enoch both married Brewster girls and raised their families in the Harvey and Hopewell areas and
his daughter Rebecca married Rufus Reid of Harvey.
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