Talk:Tufts Cove, Nova Scotia

Does anyone know if the proper spelling of Tufts Cove is with an apostrophe 's' or not? Given that the settling family's last name was Tufts, it seems odd that the place would be spelled as if the family's name was "Tuft" - without the 's'.

Twinchester 18:52, 6 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Without, according to a quick search of Google News for "tufts cove". I am renaming the article to remove the apostrophe. --Zippy (talk) 10:12, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

The name Tufts is an old english name from the Dane word for lands surrounding a farm or homestead. no apostrophe. corrected info on first Tufts settler from Massachusetts to NS. Many believe they were loyalists but were not (well there were a couple). but they came to NS before the Revolution. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ttuftsy (talk • contribs) 02:29, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Gersham Tufts arrival and settlement
"The cove was named for Gersham Tufts, who came to Dartmouth in 1749 with Edward Cornwallis. Shortly after arriving, he received a Crown land grant to settle the area."

Gersham/Gershom Tufts does not appear on the passenger list of settlers on Edward Cornwallis' ships https://sites.rootsweb.com/~canns/cornwallis9.html. Gersham/Gershom was from Massachusetts, while the Cornwallis Ships sailed from England.

Thomas B Akins, History of Halifax City, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1895. History of Halifax City, Appendices F, page 245. "A list of the families of English, Swiss, etc., which have been settled in Nova Scotia since the year 1749, and who now are settlers in the places hereafter mentioned" shows that "Gerchon Tuffs" was resident in Halifax in July 1752.

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia was founded in 1750. Wikipedia's own article says so.

"Shortly after arriving, he received a Crown land grant to settle the area."

"Shortly after" could be in the 1770s or even the 1780s. It's possible that the original record of his land grant in Dartmouth is lost. I have not been able to find a record of it so far, only a reference to it from 1783. There are records for several land transactions by Gersham/Gershom in Halifax though, and the sale of his land in Dartmouth in 1792.

-- HALIFAX	MILITARY HERITAGE PRESERVATION SOCIETY Historical Paper No. 6:	Early Settlements and Settler Experiences in Nova Scotia 1605-1763. September, 2017. https://hmhps.ca/pdf/HMHPS-historical-paper-no-6-Halifax-Early-Settlement.pdf.

"A census for Dartmouth in the 1760s showed a population of 39 and as Chapman noted: “Dartmouth was virtually a ghost town and would remain so for another two decades before the (Nantucket) whalers and Loyalists would arrive (1780s) to breathe new life into the town.”84 ... 84 Chapman, Harry. In the Wake of the Alderney Dartmouth Nova	Scotia,	1750-2000. (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2001), 32." --

Chapman's book is cited as a source for this Wikipedia article. Chapman does not give a source for his information. There are not specific citations in the book, only a general list of sources in the back.

Katedu (talk) 14:28, 22 January 2024 (UTC) Katedu (talk) 12:33, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

--

Since Wikipedia is not a place for original research, I think the best way to handle this would be to simply leave out the unlikely information about Gersham Tufts arriving with Cornwallis and receiving his land grant in Dartmouth shortly after. The important point is whom Tufts Cove is named for.

Katedu (talk) 16:39, 30 January 2024 (UTC)