10723 Highway 1: The Hamilton Young House

Architecture Style: Greek Revival

Built: 1860s-1880s

The original grantee of this section of land was the Rev. Thomas Wood, a Scottish missionary on behalf of the Church of England, and a very early New Jersey immigrant. He was the chaplain of the Annapolis garrison, and like many grantees who were clergy or military officers, he did not settle on the land he was given. He died in 1778.

The Durland (Durling) family acquired this land early in the 19th century,  and in 1856 Zebulon and Isabella [Dodge] Durling lived here. She was the daughter of Deacon Ambrose Dodge, an Anglican and descendant of the Loyalist Dodges [Stephen and Blanche],  who came in 1783 from Oyster Bay, N.Y. Though the Heritage Inventory Project of 1996 dates the home in the 1860s, Lilly family tradition remembers that this house was built by Hamilton Young, who came here with his wife Francis [Elliott] in 1883. It is the essential Nova Scotia farmhouse:  gables, extensions, ells, a touch of Greek Revival – a pleasing, serene home instinctively placed in just the right setting.

In 1912, England sent many people to Canada; we were growing and needed more skilled people to work our farms, mines, and offices. We welcomed John Edwin and Rhoda [Coles] Lilly of Nailsea, England as part of this migration. They came over in the spring of 1912, narrowly missing the Titanic!  John was a nurseryman and florist, who worked on the J. Carey Phinney farm before buying this farm from Emdon Banks.  His son, John Edwin Lilly graduated from Acadia and went on to Yale to earn his M.A. in Physics. He became Dominion Geodesist. It was Ernest George Lilly who stayed on the farm, with his young bride, Zaida Sabean. Ernest was a deacon at the church – a man deeply respected for his integrity. Zaida made history by being the first deaconess in the church.  She was known as a talented artist. Her 90^th birthday party in her church (2004) was a crowded community gathering full of thanksgiving to God. Zaida and Ernie had four children in this house: Betty (Roderick Goodwin), Janet (Lionel Crowe), Edwin (Fiona Gibson) and George. George kept the farm in the family, expanding it and keeping abreast of new ideas. He married Sandra Crisp of the Leonard Road, also an artist. Their three sons, Brad (Sharla Graham), John David (Anneke Banks), and Timothy, were all, like their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, fine citizens and good friends.