ALLISON, HENRY BURBRIDGE (1801-1890)

ALLISON, HENRY BURBRIDGE, businessman, JP, and JCP; b. Cornwallis, N.S., 30 Sep 1801, s/o James Allison and Margaret Hutchison; m. 1839, Sarah Abrams, d/o William Abrams and Sarah Triglohan; d. Sackville, N.B., 1 Dec 1890.

Henry B. Allison was a grandson of Joseph Allison, who immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1769 from Drumnaha, near Limavady, Co. Londonderry, Ireland, and a brother of Charles F. Allison, the founder of the Mount Allison institutions at Sackville.

Allison was on the Miramichi from 1823 to 1854 as resident partner of the Sackville trading firm of Crane & Allisons. In an 1833 advertisement the company offered dry-goods, hardware, groceries, and wines for sale. Allison was appointed a justice of the peace in 1830 and a justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in 1840. When the Bank of British North America opened a branch on the Miramichi in 1839 he was named a director, along with Joseph Cunard. He was a commissioner of the Seamen's Hospital in the 1830s and 40s. He was a Newcastle fireward and one of the earliest and most active of the trustees of the Newcastle Grammar School. He entered the militia as an ensign in 1825 and was promoted to captain in the 2nd Battalion in 1836. In the provincial election held in July 1843 it was he who nominated John Ambrose Street. The family was well-to-do, having a governess and several other servants in 1851 to attend to the needs of six children and two adults.

In 1854 Allison moved to Sackville, where he resided for the next thirty-six years. It was said that he possessed "courtly manners of the old school," and that "by his integrity and high sense of honor he won the respect and esteem of all." He was survived by his wife, Sarah Abrams, and four children. A son, James W. Allison, who was born in Newcastle in 1851, was head of John P. Mott & Co., of Halifax, and president of the Nova Scotia Savings and Loan Co.