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New Brunswick has a varied history. Here are some of its stories.

Did you know…

New Brunswick Permitted Slavery.
In 1785, a slave woman known simply as Nancy was brought from Maryland to New Brunswick by her owner. In the late 18th century, popular sentiment in Britain, New England and British North America increasingly favoured the abolition of slavery. However, some of New Brunswick’s social leaders, including some Supreme Court judges, still owned slaves. Nancy pled her case for freedom before the Supreme Court of N.B. in 1800, represented by two lawyers who volunteered their services. Nancy’s lawyers argued that since slavery was not recognized or legalized in New Brunswick, she must be freed. Because of a deadlock ruling among the four judges, Nancy remained a slave.

In New Brunswick, Women Were Not Considered People.
Mabel Penery French, who had graduated in 1905 from the University of King’s College Law School in Saint John, was refused admittance to the bar by the N.B. Barrister’s Society. The Society asked for the opinion of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick on whether a woman was a ‘person’ for only ‘persons’ could be admitted to the bar. Five of the Supreme Court judges ruled that Mabel French was not a person, while one abstained. The judges held strong views on the proper place of women in society. One judge declared that he had ‘no sympathy with the opinion that women should in all branches of life come in competition with men. Better let them attend to their own legitimate business.” But French was ultimately successful. In March 1906, just four months after the ruling, the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick passed a law that allowed women to study law and to be admitted to the bar. Mabel French was admitted to the bar a month later, become the first female lawyer accepted to the New Brunswick bar.

New Brunswick had the first North American female sea captain.
Molly Kool was born in Alma, on the Bay of Fundy, in 1916. She began her career as first mate on her father’s scow, learning to do everything from repairing the engine and setting the sails to sewing canvas. She also studied navigation. On April 19, 1939 she received a telegram from the navigation school at Yarmouth, N.S. stating that she had passed the exam for her master’s ticket, entitling her to command a steam or motor propelled vessel anywhere on the coast of North America. She became the first registered sea captain in North America, and the second in the world. The first was a Russian, who received her certificate just months before Captain Kool.

These were taken from “Celebrating Achievers”, prepared by the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, September 2002.

New Brunswicker Was Pioneer in Airplane Piloting.
Royden Foley, according to the St. John Public Service News, March 1, 1923, was the first man to pilot an aeroplane from New York to Philadelphia in 1913. He was born July 7, 1891 in Saint John and was educated at Saint John High School and then attended Pratt Institute in New York to study engineering. He was very interested in flying and while in New York, he worked for the Wright brothers at Mineola Field in New York. He was at Pratt from 1913 to 1916 and he flew the first flight in 1913. He joined the military in 1916, training in Toronto and became a flight trainer for them. He went overseas to join RAF in 1917. He flew patrol duty over the North Sea and missions over western Europe. In 1919 he married Kathleen Owbridge and returned with his bride to Canada. He took a job as the superintendent of the Government Automobile School for returning soldiers until he established his own business at 300 Union Street where he opened an agency for Ford cars. In 1926, he sold the business to K.C. Irving and moved to Hamilton, Ontario. In WWII he was a Commanding Officer in the Air Force Training Base in London, Ontario. He died on March 18, 1958.

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