Daniel Doyle of Wexford, Ireland and Rocky Bay, Cape Breton

           Daniel Doyle was born Abt. 1781 in Wexford, Ireland. In 1813 at 32 yrs of age he left his wife (Mary Nolan b. abt. 1786, married abt. 1804) and four children in Ireland to set out for the new world. The Irish tended to settle in family groups or close to fellow countrymen, consequently; he found his way to Cape Breton where a number of his cousins had settled. He was on the Island for six years and had petitioned for a lot on the Bras Dor Lake before heading back to Ireland in early 1819 to retrieve his wife and children. Upon returning to Cape Breton he found that his lot had been granted to another man, he therefore; applied for a 200 acre lot in Rocky Bay on the 3rd day of December 1819. The following year, 1820, his first Canadian born child, Mary, arrived. Prior to Cape Breton joining Nova Scotia in 1820 it was almost impossible for
an Irishman to own land under British rule. The first Irishman, Laurence
Kavanagh of St Peters, to be elected as an MLA was about to bring wide sweeping
changes for his fellow countrymen. Rocky Bay was now feeling a wave of Irish
Immigration including Daniel's neighbors Nicholas Keating, William Britton, John
McGrath and Michael McGrath. In 1835 four of them were on a joint grant that
that gave them outright ownership of their land. Nicholas Keating bought his
land from an uncle of Laurence (Lawry) Kavanagh. Nicholas married Ann "Nancy"
Kavanagh the daughter of Laurence Kavanagh. The children of these five families
formed many marital unions.

By the 1838 census a number of moves had been arranged within these families.
Nicholas Keating was still on his lot (50 acres). I suspect that John McGrath
had passed away and his nephew James McGrath, my gggrandfather, was newly
married and living on John's lot (50 acres). Michael McGrath had sold his lot (50
acres) to Daniel Doyle and been granted land in Little D'Escousse. Daniel
Doyle had given his lot (200 acres) to his oldest son Philip who was newly
married. William Britton was still on his lot (50 acres). As a note: William's lot
had previously belonged to Edward and Margaret (McGrath) McDonald who now lived
across the road from the Doyle's and McGrath's. Margaret was born in
D'Escousse in 1790/91. I suspect John McGrath was her father.

Note: The above information is considered accurate and came from land
registry in the NS Archives and Civil records in Arichat.

16 Oct 2008
John McGrath
jnjmcgrath@EASTLINK.CA
Halifax, Nova Scotia