Ferry named for N.S. heroine’s quest for justice nearly 200 years ago
Posted November 12, 2016 4:15 pm.
Last Updated November 12, 2016 5:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BRIER ISLAND, N.S. – A ferry in Nova Scotia has been dubbed “Margaret’s Justice” in honour of a 63-year-old widow who fought for the right to her land — and won.
The Grand Passage ferry was christened for Margaret Davis at ceremony in Westport on Saturday attended by her descendants and Premier Stephen McNeil.
More than 200 years after settling on Brier Island, Davis has become a matter of local legend for her roughly 300-kilometre quest to Halifax to defend her home against a neighbour’s land claim.
“I would really like to see a movie made about her,” says Cathleen Fillmore, who wrote a book about Davis’s journey. “Women heroes are kind of lost in history … She was a remarkable woman, and she certainly deserves to be celebrated.”
Davis came to Digby County by way of New York shortly after the American Revolution, according to Fillmore. The mother of nine was a widow for 50 years, says Fillmore, and became the island’s “granny woman … like an unofficial doctor.”
Davis faced legal troubles in 1828 when a neighbour tried to claim her land as his own.
“He probably thought she was defenceless,” Fillmore says. “And she told him.”
According to Fillmore, Davis travelled to Clementsport by boat, and from there, set out on foot for a two-week journey to Halifax. The roads weren’t fully paved at the time, Fillmore says, and Davis relied on the hospitality of friends and acquaintances along the way for places to stay overnight.
A native German speaker, Davis signed her land claim with an “X,” which is hard to defend in court, Fillmore says. Luckily for Davis, the judge in Halifax spoke her mother tongue and ruled on her behalf, Fillmore said.
“(Davis) was one of the first people to declare what we now think of as ‘squatter’s rights,'” Fillmore says. “She and her husband had cleared the land, planted gardens, built a house, so her claim took precedence over anyone else’s.”
Having secured a legal victory, Davis returned to Nova Scotia’s westernmost tip around a month after she left, says Fillmore.
In a statement Saturday, McNeil called Davis’s feat “many years ahead of her time” and said her story still resonates throughout Digby Neck.
High school student Carter Thurber suggested the ferry be named for Davis’s epic voyage in a Department of Transportation contest this spring.
The $9.3-million ferry carries 95 passengers and will begin service between Brier Island and Long Island next month.
