Loch Lomond
ELIZA TAYLOR – BELLE OF LOCH LOMOND
1783-1888, Richmond, Virgina – Saint John, New Brunswick
Eliza Taylor was born into slavery in Richmond Virginia in 1783. At the young age of four she was taken away from Virginia aboard a British Man-of-War destined for the port of Halifax. As it was winter, the ship docked in Bermuda where Eliza and an estimated four hundred slaves remained aboard until the spring of 1787. Eliza was eventually brought to Saint John later that year and became a servant to James Peters, a lawyer in Gagetown. After serving the Peters family for fifteen years, Elizabeth fled her servitude and eventually met and married James Taylor from French Village. She and her husband were among the original settlers of the community of Loch Lomond – Willow Grove, who were granted land by the Crown as part of the African settlement following the War of 1812. Eliza was a well-known figure on the corner of Sydney Street and King’s Square where she peddled household wares and was known to drive a hard bargain. She is known as the “Belle of Loch Lomond” for her choice of brightly coloured flowing gowns and lavish hats. This style was known as the “Dolly Varden” style and was based on that character in Charles Dickens’s novel, Barnaby Rudge. Eliza died at 105 years of age.
DanTaylor & AlexDiggs
Diggs Family of Willow Grove and Saint John, N. B.
Compiled by Roger P. Nason
Dec. 2020
The earliest mention of the Diggs family is Charlotte Diggs who is listed as a grantee of lands for black residents at Loch Lomond in 1836. (W.A. Spray, Blacks of New Brunswick) The 1851 Census cites Samuel and Mary Higgs living in Simonds Parish with their four children, Joseph, George, Charles and Alexander.
Although Charlotte, at age 75, was also living nearby, she resided with Hannah Williams and possibly a three children, Henry, Lydia and Lucy. Whether Charlotte is in fact the mother of Samuel is open to speculation. Misfortune struck in Jan. 1864, when Samuel Diggs died on the 16th at age fifty-three leaving his young family. Saint John Religious Intelligencer 22 Jan. 1864) Unable to support themselves at farming, sons, except for perhaps Joseph who stayed with his mother, departed for work in Saint John over the next f few years. By 1875 McAlpine’s Business Directory indicates George Diggs, then twenty-nine, living at 46 King St. East and employed as a saloon waiter.
His brothers, Charles and Alexander, aged twenty-seven and twenty-five respectively, were also residing in the South End of the city on Duke Street. In June 1875, the brothers were brought before the city court on separate charges of intoxication and assault. (Saint John Daily Telegraph June 1875) By 1881, Charles, employed se wagon teamster, settled down at 278 Duke Street while Alex, listed as a labourer, boarded nearbv on Pitt St. About a year earlier on April 9th, 1880, the Daily Telegraph reported the terrible news that their mother, Mary, was found dead at her home at Loch Lomond where she resided alone. She was discovered by her niece, Mrs. Corbyn.
Joseph apparently had moved to the city by this time and may have married; but Ad 1901 he is listed as a widower. He died at the Municipal Home on 4 June 1920. He was described as a half brother to the other children in probate proceedings for Charles. (Daily Telegraph and. Sun 30 Mar. 1915)
George, in the meantime, married and was living with his Wife, the former Phoebe Ann Hall, and two children, Frederick and Cassie at 284 Duke Street. When he was not labouring as a whitewasher of buildings, George kept employed as an oyster opener in a saloon/restaurant. (McAlpine’s Business Directory 1881-2, 1890, 1898 and 1900; Saint John Census 1891) Although OM more daughters were added to the family before 1901- Clara and Matilda- his only son, Frederick died suddenly in 1898 at age twenty-two, just a few years after they lost a new child, George, at birth in 1893. George and Phoebe continued to live on Duke Street until she died in 1919 and he in 1923. (PANB, Vital Statistics, Death Certificates)
For a short time, Alexander tried his hand at boxing in the 1890s. In 1893, he won a silver cup at a boxing tournament carried out at the Mechanics Institute. This must have encouraged him to enter a sparring exhibition a year later against Jim Addison from his neighbourhood. The outcome of the match is not known but Addison was nicknamed “the sledge hammer hitter of Duke Street” and his ring name was “Thunderbolt”, (Daily Telegraph 17 May 1893; 25 Sept. 1894; 3 May 1895) No other reports come up about Alexander’s short sporting life.
Alex spent his remaining days in the Saint John living at Union Alley in 1911 and working as a mason. He never married and died on 23 April 1917. His remains were returned to Willow Grove for interment. (Saint John Census 1911; PANB, Saint John Burial Permits)