PURDIE, THOMAS (1777-1845)

PURDIE, THOMAS, businessman and JP; b. Lanarkshire, Scotland, c1777; m. 1809, Isabella Mallard, of Richibucto, N.B.; d. Yarmouth, N.S., 6 Jul 1845.

Thomas Purdie left his native Scotland around 1801 and had settled on the Miramichi by 1809. He was married in June of that year, and in September he was appointed a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of militia. From 1818 to 1822 he was a school trustee in Newcastle parish. He may have been a shipbuilder. In any event, he owned choice riverfront property at Rosebank, which he sold in 1819 to William Abrams & Co. for £1325.

Purdie and his wife, Isabella Mallard, had a daughter baptized in the Anglican church in 1822. They left the Miramichi soon afterwards. He was said to have lived in Yarmouth, N.S., for sixteen years prior to his death there in 1845.