Notes:

“My great great grandfather, the music Professor Caleb Rand Bill came from Nova Scotia to New England with his wife. They had their nine children in succession from New Brunswick, Maine, Boston and then Salem as he moved from place to place teaching music. According to the Bill Family Genealogy, he had three brothers. One died while studying away at Acadia College, and the other two went on a mission to New Zealand.” (Source: Heather Wilkinson Rojo – March 18, 2010).

Caleb married Ann Margaret BOLLMAN on 7 Jun 1858 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Ann was born on 11 Sep 1835 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia; died in 1923 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Ingraham Ebenezer BILL was born on 14 Apr 1859 in Saint John, New Brunswick; died on 9 Oct 1876 in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts.
2. Mary Ann BILL was born about 1861 in New Brunswick; died in 1910 in Massachusetts.
3. Isabella Lyons BILL was born in Jan 1863 in Machias, Washington, Maine; died on 19 Jan 1935 in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts.
4. Elizabeth T. BILL was born in Sep 1866 in Houlton, Aroostook, Maine; died in 1934.
5. Jane B. BILL was born in Jan 1868 in Nova Scotia; died on 2 May 1946 in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts.
6. Charlotte Grace BILL was born on 30 Jan 1870 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; and died.
7. Frederick Bremner Bollman BILL was born on 27 Jan 1872 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died in 1910.
8. Georgia Buffington BILL was born on 4 Oct 1875 in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 26 Oct 1949; was buried in Central Cemetery, Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts.
9. Edward Manning BILL was born on 28 Aug 1880 in Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts; died on 14 Jul 1881 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1881, Saint Martins, Saint John, New Brunswick
• Census: 1891, Saint Martins, Saint John, New Brunswick

Notes:

BILL, INGRAHAM EBENEZER   Baptist minister, journalist, and author; b. 19 Feb. 1805 in Billtown, N.S., son of Asahel Bill and Mary Rand; m. first 20 April 1826 Isabella Lyons in Cornwallis Township, N.S., and they had at least five children including one daughter; m. secondly 14 May 1873 Mrs Susan L. Dove in Boston; d. 4 Aug. 1891 in St Martins, N.B.
 Because his father died when he was about nine years old, the major influences on Ingraham Ebenezer Bill’s early life were his older brother Caleb Rand Bill and his minister, Edward Manning. By both men he was directed along the path of Christian commitment and public duty. On 8 Aug. 1824 he was baptized by Manning and joined the Cornwallis Baptist Church.
 After a long and intense struggle with his own fears and doubts, Bill began preaching in Cornwallis Township in 1827. The following year he moved to Nictaux, N.S., to assist the elderly Thomas Handley Chipman. Of Bill’s ordination on 2 March 1829 Manning recorded in his diary, “I never saw a more solemn and joyful lad ordained.” On Chipman’s death the following year, Bill became minister of the large and sprawling pastorate of Wilmot-Nictaux. He quickly established himself as one of the most effective and popular young ministers in the Maritimes. In a series of dramatic revivals he increased the size of his church until by 1837 it was the largest Baptist church in the Maritime colonies. Except for some 18 months as pastor of the Fredericton Baptist Church in 1840-42, he would remain at Nictaux until 1852. In that year he returned to New Brunswick to serve as pastor of the Germain Street Baptist Church in Saint John. In later years he ministered to churches in Carleton (Saint John) and St Martins.
 Given his effectiveness as a preacher, it is not surprising that Bill should be looked to for leadership in other areas of denominational affairs. Although he lacked much formal schooling himself, he developed an early and deep respect for education. His known sympathies for Baptist involvement in education made him a natural ally of the aggressive Halifax Baptists who by the fall of 1838 were determined to establish a denominational college. At a meeting with Edmund Albern Crawley and John Pryor, held at Bill’s house in Nictaux in October, the decision was made to found Queen’s College (renamed Acadia in 1841). When the decision was formally approved by the Nova Scotia Baptist Education Society on 15 November, Bill was named to the society’s managing committee and appointed financial agent for the new college.
 For the next 50 years Acadia would have few more dedicated or hard-working supporters. Between 1838 and 1884 Bill served first on the managing committee and then on the college’s board of governors. He repeatedly canvassed the Maritime colonies seeking financial support and students for the institution. In 1844-45 he travelled as far south as Georgia in his efforts to secure funding. The governor of South Carolina gave him $50, but most other Southerners would not contribute because Maritime Baptists supported the abolition of slavery. In 1849 and again in 1874 he travelled to Great Britain to raise funds. In recognition of his years of dedication to education, Acadia conferred on him an honorary doctorate in divinity in 1881.
 Bill’s visit to the United States had made him strongly aware of the need for “female education.” He had provided a good education for his only daughter, Mary, and in the fall of 1845, with his help, she opened a boarding-school for young ladies in her father’s home in Nictaux, the first such school run by Nova Scotia Baptists. Bill would campaign long and hard for greater educational opportunities for females and would live to see women graduating from Acadia College in the 1880s.
 Bill was clearly unafraid of change in society or in his church. He was one of the leaders of the temperance cause in the Nictaux area, and by 1834 he could proudly report that all dispensers of alcohol in the district had been forced to close their doors. During his brief ministry in Fredericton, he presided over a church that introduced organ music into the service. Several scandalized members transferred to other, more conservative churches.
 Bill was an enthusiastic advocate of Maritime Baptist involvement in foreign missions. He tried unsuccessfully in the 1850s to organize a Baptist mission to Australia, perhaps because two of his sons had gone there to settle. In 1870 he was one of the first to call for the establishment of a separate Maritime Baptist mission field in Asia; for 25 years the church had supported American Baptist work in Burma.
 Virtually every aspect of denominational life saw Bill’s energetic leadership. For ten years (1846-56) he served as secretary of the newly formed Baptist Convention of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and later he was president of that organization. In 1852 he became editor of the Christian Visitor, a Baptist newspaper in New Brunswick, and he tirelessly filled this office until 1872.
 His long experience with the Baptist church, his central role in its development, and his intimate acquaintance with the founding fathers of the denomination led him as “a sacred duty” to compile a history of the Regular Baptists of the Maritime provinces. Aside from John Mockett Cramp’s series of articles in the Christian Messenger in the 1860s, Bill’s Fifty years with the Baptist ministers and churches of the Maritime provinces of Canada (Saint John, 1880) was the first attempt at such a compilation. Although the work is largely narrative rather than analytical, its publication was none the less an important event in the development of Maritime Baptists’ awareness of their past.
 An effective evangelist, pastor, and denominational organizer, Ingraham Ebenezer Bill was foremost among what might be termed the second generation of Maritime Baptist leaders.

Barry M. Moody
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Ingraham married Isabella LYONS on 20 Apr 1826 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia. Isabella (daughter of Thomas Ratchford LYONS and Ann SKINNER) was born on 28 Jan 1806 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia; died in Apr 1872 in Carleton, New Brunswick. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Asahel married Mary RAND. Mary was born on 14 Mar 1763 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia; died on 27 Apr 1843 in Billtown, Kings, Nova Scotia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1851, Sackville, Westmorland, New Brunswick

Thomas married Ann SKINNER on 5 Oct 1802 in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. Ann (daughter of Charles SKINNER and Sarah OSBORN) was born on 9 Mar 1786 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia; died on 19 Oct 1815 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

David married Elizabeth RATCHFORD. Elizabeth was born in 1762 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia; died on 16 Mar 1843 in Lower, Nova Scotia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

“Sarah and Charles Skinner went to Maugerville, N.B. just before the Loyalists, and it is assumed they might have gotten a good price for their land and moved to Bass River, N.S., where Charles was a school teacher. They stayed there about five years before moving to Kings County. The school records in Bass River were burned in a fire.” (Source: Isabel Palmeter) This would suggest that the family came to Cornwallis Township just prior to the influx of Loyalists.

Charles Skinner was a grantee at Cornwallis township, that he was born 3 Jan 1748 in Colchester, Connecticut, son of Aaron Skinner. He married 24 Nov 1774 at Passamaquoddy, Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Osborn, perhaps from Martha’s Vinyard. She lists 15 children, including my Ann Skinner, who married 1802 Thomas Lyons. (Source: Esther Clark Wright in “Planters and Pioneers”)

The Skinners first came to Passamaquoddy, Campobello or Indian Island (all in Passamaquoddy Bay in Charlotte, New Brunswick), where Charles might have taught school from 1774 to 1778. They moved to St. John and Maugerville in 1778 where he taught school until 1780. The arrival of the Loyalists may have provided financial incentive to sell their lands profitably. They moved to Five Islands, Cumberland, N.S. (but I think then all part of Cornwallis Township) where the family lived for the first five years, before they settled in 1785 at Little Pereau, near Blomidon, in the Cornwallis area of present day Kings County. (Source: Rev. Davison in his book “Alice of Grand-Pré”)

Charles Skinner was a school teacher by profession, and one reference said he was a “refined gentleman”.

The father of Samuel Skinner (i.e., Charles Skinner) came from New England to the Maritimes just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. (Source: The book “Biographical Review… Province of New Brunswick” published in Boston in 1900 page 97)

“Died 15 January 1848 in Cornwallis, Mrs. Sarah Skinner in 88th year, daughter of the late Samuel Osborne of Martha’s Vineyard, U.S. They removed to Casco, Maine, to New Brunswick, then to Nova Scotia. Born 22 July 1760, married in NB at age 16 to Charles Skinner, native of Connecticut. Leaves 8 sons, 7 daughters, 113 grandchildren, 60 great-grandchildren. Late W. A. Chipman was a brother-in-law. Edward Manning and George Dimock sons-in-law. Rev. I. E. Bill married a granddaughter.” (Source: The Christian Messenger an early Baptist magazine).

Charles married Sarah OSBORN on 24 Nov 1774 in Passamaquoddy, Nova Scotia. Sarah was born on 22 Jul 1760 in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts; died on 15 Jul 1848 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From notes of A. Joanne (Irving) Hunt, Litchfield, NH:

From The Christian Messenger (an early Baptist magazine): “Died 15 January 1848 in Cornwallis, Mrs. Sarah Skinner in 88th year, daughter of the late Samuel Osborne of Martha’s Vineyard, U.S. They removed to Casco, Maine, to New Brunswick, then to Nova Scotia. Born 22 July 1760, married in NB at age 16 to Charles Skinner, native of Connecticut. Leaves 8 sons, 7 daughters, 113 grandchildren, 60 great-grandchildren. Late W. A. Chipman was a brother-in-law. Edward Manning and George Dimock sons-in-law. Rev. I. E. Bill married a granddaughter.”