5668 Highway 201: The William Morse House

Architecture Style: New England Colonial

Built: 1852

In 1843 Henry Alline Morse sold his brother William some land from their grandfather Samuel’s 1760 grant. William’s young family was recovering from the death, in 1841, of two-year-old Major, named after Lavinia’s father.  So it was good to work. William cut and stowed clear pine lumber, to season it for his project: a fine house for Lavinia, who had come from such a prominent family. Her grandfather, Magistrate Handley Chipman, deputy of the Rhode Island General Assembly,  had come to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia in 1761, and was appointed  Justice of the Peace and Judge of Probate.  Handley was a scholar and a writer, a religious man, who used his gifts to produce a  commentary on the Bible!  He was one of those early Nova Scotia dignitaries who wore “frilled shirts, knee‑breeches, wigs or powdered hair, cocked hats, and swords” on state occasions.  His son Major married Elizabeth Bishop, of the Horton planters, and was Master in Chancery and Commissioner of Insolvency, Justice of the Peace,  and  Custos Rotulorum  (President of the Bench of Magistrates).  No wonder William thought he had to “keep up”.    

William and Lavinia built “Burnbrae” when their daughters were coming of age. Henrietta, 18, did not marry.  Annie Eliza, 17, and Julia, 11, each married respectable Leonard men ( James S., first elected  Councillor of Ward 3, and William L., merchant ). Joseph was only 7. He would grow up to marry Almira Phinney, pictured above with three of their four sons.  Joseph and Almira lived here for many years.  One of their sons died tragically, and two went to Harvard and settled in Massachusetts.  But Ewart Gladstone lived here. He enlarged the house and farmed expansively: imagine harvesting 1000 barrels of apples, of 56 varieties!  He grew strawberries as well.  His wife, Louise [Longley] was beloved “mistress of Burnbrae” for 57 years. Dr. William (Bill) Morse and Jean [MacDonald] were therapists whose practice at Burnbrae helped many people. 

Bruce Gillis, after a decade and more in his own family homestead, bought Burnbrae in 1989.  He practised law in Middleton. He and Deborah [Smith], and Paul, Robbie and Kendra, were good stewards of this lovely home. Burnbrae reminds us, in an era of excess,  that once,  “a fine home” was a simple, dignified Colonial, its beams hand-hewn with care, its grounds rich with fruit trees and lawns.