HAWBOLT, LEONARD (1789-1851)

HAWBOLT, LEONARD, businessman; b. Marie Joseph, Guysborough Co., N.S., 10 Jul 1789, s/o Johann Leonard Hawbolt and Susanna Knowles; m. 1813, Sophie Conrad, of Halifax; d. Chatham, 20 Jul 1851.

Leonard Hawbolt, a descendant of one of the earliest German settlers in Nova Scotia, moved to Chatham with his wife and family in 1825 and established himself as a merchant. At the beginning he was in business with William Letson, a fellow-Nova Scotian, with whom he erected a store in 1826. The partnership was dissolved in 1832, and Hawbolt continued in business on his own. He was in serious financial trouble in 1844. At that time he was one of two commissioners of buoys and beacons on the Miramichi.

Hawbolt and his wife, Sophie Conrad, raised several daughters and at least one son. Their daughter Barbara Ann Hawbolt was the first wife of James Caie. Their son Charles L. Hawbolt was an auctioneer and commission merchant in Chatham until the 1850s, when he moved to Halifax.