ELLIOTT, FRANCIS (1799-1881)

ELLIOTT, FRANCIS, bridge builder and road supervisor; b. Selkirkshire, Scotland, c1799; m. 1831, Margaret Carruthers, of Newcastle parish, a native of Dumfriesshire; d. Moorfield, 6 May 1881.

Between the 1830s and 1850s Francis Elliott was the leading bridge builder in northern New Brunswick.

One of the largest of his structures was a bridge which he built across Bathurst Basin in 1841 to replace an earlier one which had fallen into disrepair. Another well-known structure of his was the bridge at Doaktown, which he built in 1847 while Alexander Goodfellow was supervisor of the 'great road' between Newcastle and Fredericton. The bridge eliminated the need for the ferry which had been operated on that crossing for many years by Henry Swim Sr. In 1850 he built a bridge across the Renous River, "on the plank truss principle," which removed another ferry from the Newcastle-Fredericton route. In 1854 he was awarded a contract to build a new highway bridge over the Bartibog River.

After David R. Crocker's death in 1856 Elliott was appointed to take his place as supervisor of the Newcastle to Fredericton road until the end of the year. Responsibility for this road was then assigned to Rowland Crocker and others for several years, but Elliott was the supervisor again at times in the 1860s and 70s. In 1875 the Union Advocate criticized him for the deplorable state of the section of road between Newcastle and Northwest Bridge. He was undoubtedly correct when he insisted that his contract involved only the road from the bridge to the York County line, but the fact that he did not even acknowledge the existence of a problem did not sit well with the editors of the newspaper.

Elliott was ordained an elder of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Chatham, in 1844 and occupied the office until 1878. He was also chairman of the board of trustees of the church for a time. He and his wife, Margaret Carruthers, are not known to have had any children, but they shared their home with various relatives and lodgers. In 1871 the land surveyor Matthew Carruthers was living with them.