WISWELL, HENRY (1801-1876)

WISWELL, HENRY, retail merchant, clerk, and banker; b. Halifax (bap. 15 Feb 1801), s/o Enoch Wiswell and Ann Wright; m. 1st, 1828, Elizabeth Harris Smith, of Halifax, and 2nd, 1838, Rebecca Avery, of Fredericton; d. Dartmouth, N.S., 3 Dec 1876.

Henry Wiswell arrived on the Miramichi before the fire of 1825. He traded for some years in a variety of goods, often heading his advertisements with the word "Wines." He was also said to have occupied positions of trust in some of the leading business houses on the river. In 1836 the trustees of St James Presbyterian Church presented him with an engraved silver snuff box, "for conducting the sacred music" and "forming a choir in the church." He was probably moving from Newcastle to Chatham at that time. In 1838, when a branch of the Commercial Bank of New Brunswick opened at Chatham, he was appointed cashier (that is, manager and sole employee). He held this position until he returned to Nova Scotia in the 1840s.

Wiswell was survived in 1876 by his second wife, Rebecca Avery, and a son, William H. Wiswell, who was clerk and treasurer of the municipality of Halifax for many years.