Written by Vicky Messervey
We all know Blowers Street. It's one of the most food-saturated streets in all of downtown Halifax!
You've got Willy's, you've got Smoke's Poutinerie, and then there's Jiang Nan, Mirchi Tandoor, Johny's Pork Shack, Buddy's Deli, Potikki's, and Burrito Jacks—just to name a few. And, of course, there's the ever-beloved icon that is Pizza Corner.
But, "Blowers"—that's a pretty weird name for a street, right? What's that about?
Well, kids, grab some takeout and get comfy on the couch. It's time to learn about the Honourable Sampson Salter Blowers.
A Rough Start
Sampson Salter Blowers was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 10, 1741 or 1742 (there is some debate). His father, John, a lieutenant in the British army, was sent to fight at the first siege of Louisbourg, Île-Royale (Cape Breton), in 1745. While he was fighting, he caught "camp fever", or typhus, a highly contagious bacterial infection. He was sent back to the United States and died not long after his return. Blowers' mother, Sarah (Salter), died shortly after her husband. This left Blowers and his siblings (he had at least one sister) in the care of his maternal grandfather, Malachi Salter. Tragically, the time spent with his grandfather was also short-lived. Malachi passed away in 1751 when Blowers was just ten years old.
Now an orphan, Blowers did not let these misfortunes hold him back. He attended the Boston Grammar School and, upon graduation, enrolled in Harvard College. He completed his bachelor's degree in 1763 and went on to complete a Master of Arts degree in 1765. In his adult years, Blowers was described as "a short, thin man with untiring energy," and it could be argued he had an intelligence to match (Cuthbertson pg. 16). His skills and enthusiasm soon caught the attention of Thomas Hutchinson.
Hutchinson's name may sound familiar to American history buffs. He was a prominent politician who served as the speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, and the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He was also a devout Loyalist, meaning he was faithful to the British crown even as the idea of an American Revolution began to swirl around him.
Hutchinson saw Blowers' potential and took him under his wing, teaching him the intricacies of the legal system; this education paid off. By 1766, Blowers was made an attorney for the Suffolk Inferior Court, and by 1770, he was working as a barrister in the Massachusetts Superior Court. Blowers became well known as a gifted trial lawyer. Even while working as a junior lawyer, he was tapped to work on some pretty high-profile cases.
For example, on March 5, 1770 (five years into the American Revolution), a group of Bostonians angered by British-imposed taxes began to taunt Private Hugh White as he stood guard at the Custom's House. Tempers ran hot; the crowd began throwing insults, then snowballs and stones, at Private White. The Private called for reinforcements and Captain Thomas Preston and other soldiers came to White's aid. The crowd escalated to hitting the soldiers with sticks and clubs. Though it is unclear who gave the order or if one was even said, the results were undeniable: the soldiers fired into the crowd, killing five people and wounding six others. This event became known as the Boston Massacre. Blowers, along with John Adams and Josiah Quincy Jr., defended the soldiers at trial. Six of the men were found not guilty, and two others were found guilty of manslaughter. They were able to avoid the death penalty thanks to an old English law called "benefit of the clergy", which allowed people with connections to the church to receive a get-out-of-the-death-penalty-free card. The "card", in this case, was the branding of an "M" on their thumb.
Did they win the case? Yes.
Did this help Blowers win friends within the tumultuous crowd of pro-revolutionaries? No, it did not.
Yankee Doodle Is Coming For You-dle
You see, in addition to a love of the law, Hutchinson had also instilled in Blowers his dedicated Loyalist beliefs. And as the American Revolutionary War raged on, the situation for Loyalists became more and more grim.
In June of 1774, the Massachusetts charter under the British government was abolished. As a result, the courts of Boston were closed. This, combined with the criticism he received for his Loyalist sentiments, was enough for Blowers to decide to leave the state. He and his wife Sarah (Kent), whom he had married only two years before on April 5, 1772, rented out their Boston property and fled to England.
Although he was safer in England, it was not home. Blowers kept a close eye on the Revolutionary War, looking for a sign the battle was shifting in England's favour. In 1776, when the British army began their occupation of New York City and Newport, Rhode Island, Blowers saw this as a sign that it was safe to return to America. He and Sarah settled in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1777.
In April 1778, while on a solo trip to Boston, Sarah became quite ill. Blowers left Newport and headed for Boston to see to her. Despite having the proper documentation and permissions required for travel by the American authorities, Blowers was arrested as soon as he arrived in Boston. He was imprisoned and ultimately sent back to England through the port of Halifax. In September 1778, the Banishment Act of the State of Massachusetts was passed. This Act was designed to prevent specific people with British loyalties from entering the state; both Blowers and his former mentor Hutchinson made the list.
Eventually, Loyalist citizens left Newport and fled to New York. Blowers was sent to serve in the Vice-Admiralty court in New York until March of 1781 when he was appointed the Solicitor General.
Why Have Friends When You Can Have Enemies?
By 1782, the American Revolutionary War had been going on for seven years. Eventually, the war became too much of a financial burden for Great Britain, and they conceded. On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, and the American Revolution came to an end. The United States of America was officially free from British rule. For Blowers and Sarah, this meant it was time to leave America for good. They and his sister left for Nova Scotia before the month was out, settling in Halifax to begin a new life.
Blowers was appointed the Attorney General of Nova Scotia in December 1784, replacing the previous Attorney General, Richard Gibbons. This sparked a life-long feud with local lawyer and politician Richard John Uniacke, who had expected that he would replace Gibbons. The men proceeded to spend years throwing insults at each other and generally being petty. For example, when Blowers called Uniacke "deficient in Loyalty", Uniacke accused Blowers of supporting smuggling. When Uniacke dismissed a Black servant from his household, Blowers hired them into his own. And in 1791, when Uniacke said "rude things" to Blowers, Blowers challenged him to a duel!
Was dueling illegal in Nova Scotia? It sure was! But that didn't stop people from participating in them. This duel between Blowers and Uniacke was ultimately prevented. Chief Justice Thomas Strange intervened and bound the men to a one thousand pound fine if they broke the peace (this would be around $223,600 today). According to rumour, Blowers indicated he would have no problem breaking the bond and paying the fine in order to shoot Uniacke. This frightened Uniacke; he backed down from the fight, and it's even said that he apologized. But it wasn't the last time the two men would almost come to violence.
In 1797, Chief Justice Strange resigned, and Blowers was given the appointment. By good luck or good management, his protégé Jonathan Sterns, who was also no fan of Uniacke, was appointed the Solicitor General. Around this same time, Uniacke was appointed to Blowers' old position as the Attorney General. This group of men had a great deal of bad blood between them, and so Governor John Wentworth attempted to bring the parties together by hosting a meeting between Uniacke, Sterns, and several of their friends and colleagues. Although the meeting itself was at least cordial, what happened when it was over was anything but. Following the meeting, Uniacke attacked Sterns in the street and beat him viciously. Sterns, who is described as a "...weak and sickly man..." (Cuthbertson, pg. 36) was unable to defend himself and was injured so badly it is believed this fight directly contributed to his death in the spring of 1798. Upon hearing of the fight, Blowers AGAIN challenged Uniacke to a duel, which AGAIN was only prevented by the intervention of local magistrates. Blowers ultimately won the battle, however, as he outlived Uniacke by more than a decade.
Blowers' life in Halifax was not all rude exchanges and pistols at dawn. He had spent much of his life in unstable situations, and he wanted to settle down.
Blowers and Sarah Ann Anderson adopted their only child, Sarah Ann Anderson. Based on available records, it appears she was from Halifax and born sometime around 1796. It is unknown at what age the Blowers adopted her into their family. On April 22, 1823, in St. Paul's Church, Sarah Ann married William Blowers Bliss, barrister, judge, and the son of Blowers' friend in New Brunswick, Jonathan Bliss. Sarah Ann and William had seven children together.
Blowers also constructed a family home at the corner of Blowers Street and Barrington Street. The large wooden home served many purposes long after Blowers passed away, including as The Waverley Hotel and the Metropolitan Hotel. In 1886, the Sisters of Charity purchased the building and ran it as a Home for Aged Women. By the turn of the century, local doctors asked the Sisters of Charity for their assistance to better serve a wider range of patients. A brick addition was added to the original house, and the first Halifax Infirmary was born. In the 1930s, the space was considered too small for the number of people it served, and the Sisters moved to a new facility on Quinpool Road. The Blowers House then became a convent.
Ultimately, the home was torn down. The Barrington Gate Building (1546 Barrington Street) now stands in its place. If you look at the Barrington Gate Building, you'll notice that its large Italianate windows have stylistic similarities to those of the addition added to the Blowers Home when it became the Halifax Infirmary. Perhaps this was purposefully done as a callback to the building's history.
Blowers was also an active participant in local business matters that benefited the public good. For example, in 178, King's College was founded in Windsor, Nova Scotia, by American Loyalists. Blowers became a member of the first board of governors for the College. King's College moved to Halifax after the Windsor campus was destroyed by a devastating fire in 1920. He purchased property near Windsor and divided his time between there and Halifax with summers spent in the country and winters spent in the city. He was also a member of the Governor's Fire Company board, a fire fighting institution in the late 1790's.
In terms of his judicial work, much like his tenure in New England, Blowers gained a reputation in Nova Scotia as a reputable, educated, and fair judge. John George Marshall, a lawyer and politician from Country Harbour, Nova Scotia, described him as being "...recognized for his sound knowledge of the law, the force of his logic and argument, and the simplicity and attractiveness of his language..." (Dictionary of Canadian Biography). Blowers presided over many prominent cases during his tenure as Chief Justice. For example, in 1809, he was part of a commission that heard the case of Edward Jordan, an Irish immigrant who had settled in Newfoundland and was accused of murder and piracy aboard the fishing vessel Three Sisters.
Jordan had at once owned Three Sisters, but it was taken from him to pay off his debts. The new captain, John Stairs, told Jordan that he would take him, his wife, and his children to Halifax to help them find better prospects than what they currently had in Newfoundland. They agreed.
Three days into the journey, Jordan pulled out a pistol and attempted to shoot Capt. Stairs. The shot missed but hit another crew member, killing him. Jordan and his wife then fought with Stairs and another shipmate. In the scuffle, the second shipmate was also killed, and Stairs was wounded. To save his own life, Stairs leapt overboard. He was picked up by an American fishing schooner heading for Massachusetts. He recounted his tale to authorities in Boston; Jordan was brought to Halifax to face justice. While Jordan's wife was acquitted of any charges, Jordan paid for his actions with his life and was sentenced to death.
In 1815, Blowers heard another notable case of murder on a ship. James Archibald was charged with the murder of Captain Benjamin Ellenwood. Archibald was a member of Ellenwood's crew and murdered him sometime after Ellenwood's shipping vessel docked in Halifax on January 31, 1815. The motivation for the killing is unclear. Archibald also paid the ultimate price for his crimes.
In 1820, Blowers presided over the case of William Wilkie, a political reformer who published a pamphlet called A Letter to the People of Halifax. In the pamphlet, Wilkie criticized the tax rates, the exploitation of workhouse inmates, the distribution of seats in the House of Assembly, and civic officials themselves. He stated: "I will... say to the magistrates in the name of the people of this province, that we are governed by a set of drivellers, from whom we can expect no remedy, but in poison, no relief but in death." (pg. 7). Although Wilkie may have made some relevant points in his article, his language and tone did not sit well with those in positions of authority. Wilkie attempted to hide his identity by publishing his critique anonymously, but he was found out and brought to court. He was charged with "... publishing a scandalous, seditious, and unlawful libel against almost all the constituted authorities in this province" (Acadian Recorder, April 22, 1820, pg. 3).
Wilkie asked for permission to represent himself in court, and Blowers granted it. However, "...the attempts of the prisoner to justify the publication of the pamphlet were ill judged and indecorous" (Acadian Recorder, April 22, 1820, pg. 3). In other words, when it came to his defense, Wilkie was misguided at best and fully improper at worst. According to the Acadian Recorder, Blowers addressed both Wilkie and the jury on the subject of libel law: "... The charge of the Chief Justice to the jury was such as might have been expected from a judge so constitutionally informed; the clear and convincing view his lordship took of the law of libel evidently made a forcible impression on all who heard him." Having been educated on the legalities and definitions surrounding the charge of libel, the jury retired to consider their verdict. It only took five minutes for them to conclude that Wilkie was guilty. In the end, Blowers sentenced Wilkie to two years of hard labour.
But these high-profile cases were not all Blowers became known for.
The Abolitionism: Making the Law Work for You
Many people may think of Canada as a country where slavery has never existed, but nothing could be further from the truth.
In 1750, of the almost 3000 people living in Halifax, around four hundred were enslaved Black people. With the influx of Loyalists after the Revolutionary War, this number grew. Slaves were often bought and sold at auctions as one would buy livestock, with traders like Joshua Mauger running advertisements in local papers to promote the Black people he had for sale.
The practice of slavery had not sat well with Judge Strange nor with his successor, Blowers. The Slave Trade Act of 1807 outlawed the transatlantic slave trade (in theory, anyway), but that did not entitle Black people who had already been bought and sold to their freedom. The legitimacy of slavery in Nova Scotia had been heavily debated in government many times, but no laws had been put into place ending the practice. From his position, Blowers could not change the law; he was, in fact, bound to uphold it, but he could use the law to make proving the right of ownership over another person very difficult.
In a letter to Ward Chipman (who would become a member of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick) Blowers stated: "... the question of the slavery of Negroes had been often agitated in Nova Scotia in different ways, but had not received a direct decision... My immediate predecessor, Sir. Thomas Strange dexterously avoided an adjudication of the principal point, yet, as he required the fullest proof of the master's claim in point of fact, it was found generally very easy to succeed in favour of the Negro..." (Smith). In other words, Blowers and Strange demanded not only undeniable proof of purchase but would also call into question the right of the seller to do so in the first place. For example, a man claimed to own a Black woman who had been arrested in Annapolis Royal. The man could provide proof that he had, in fact, purchased the woman in New York, but "...the Chief Justice held that he had not proved the right of the seller so to dispose of her..." (Riddell, pg. 369). Blowers' argument was that the person in New York had no right to sell the woman, thus making the sale void. He then directed the jury to favour the defendant, which they did. The claim to the enslaved woman was lost, and she was free.
Over time, claims made by "masters" in court became more and more infrequent as they could not provide the proof required by Blowers to prove a legitimate claim. In 1834, the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect in the British colonies, officially ending the practice of slavery and freeing some 800,000 enslaved Black people.
A Good Run
Through 1810-1820, Blowers was seen less and less in court both in Halifax and in other cities around the province. He would admit in his later years that he had stayed away from court due to a loss of his hearing and sight. In 1832, he finally concluded that his health was too poor to continue in his position, and he resigned his post as Chief Justice at the age of 90.
Ten years into his retirement in 1842, Blowers took a fall and broke his hip, an injury from which he could not recover. He passed away on October 25, 1842, at one hundred years of age.
Following his death, the Acadian Recorder printed an article detailing a meeting held by members of the legal community in Halifax at which they discussed Blowers' career and his character: "His sagacity in discovering the truth - his undeviating pursuit of justice. His firm maintenance of the just prerogatives of the Crown... the urbanity which he displayed to his professional brethren - his amiable demeanor in private life, and his kind and benevolent disposition - entitle him to the esteem and admiration of all classes of the community, and particularly that profession of which he was so distinguished an ornament" (October 20, 1842, pg. 3). The men dressed in full mourning went as a group to visit Blowers' family to pay honour to the deceased.
At the time of his death, Blowers left a number of gifts to his wife and his extended family, but the majority of his estate went to his daughter Sarah Ann. It is estimated that she inherited £40,000, or approximately $6,600,000 today.
Although it is unknown where Blowers was interred, there is a memorial to him in Saint Paul's Church:
The crypt at Saint Paul's Church was the final resting place for many prominent local magistrates, including Chief Justice Hon. Jonathan Belcher; Chief Justice Hon. Bryan Finucane; Lieutenant Governor Hon. Charles Lawrence; Lieutenant Governor Hon. Montagu Wilmont; and Lieutenant Governor Hon. John Parr. Even Blower's "good friend" Richard Uniacke and his wife are buried in Saint Paul's Church. This author believes that Blowers was initially interred in the crypt at Saint Paul's Church, but if so, he did not stay there.
You would never know who was buried at the grave markers in the above photograph simply by looking at them. The aged and weathered stones have been all but scrubbed clean of the inscriptions. However, thanks to the diligent work of the Halifax Municipal Cemeteries Commission, they are not forgotten.
On July 10, 1885, Blowers' beloved wife Sarah passed away. She was buried in the newly created Camp Hill Cemetery, which had only opened the previous year. In the Camp Hill Cemetery records, a familiar name appears along with Sarah's, that of her husband Samuel Salter Blowers. Since there are no current records stating that Blowers is buried in either Saint Paul's Church or the Old Burying Ground, it is likely that Blowers' body was moved and reinterred to be with his wife. Other members of the extended family were also laid to rest in the plot, including Frances Matilda Bliss and Eliza Binney, two of Blowers and Sarah's granddaughters.
The Finishing Lines
Hanging in the Nova Scotia Legislative building is a portrait of the Honourable Sampson Salter Blowers. It was commissioned by the local magistrates in the winter of 1819 and painted by artist John P. Drake. In total, Blowers served the people of Nova Scotia as Attorney General for fourteen years and as Chief Justice for thirty-six. Thanks in part to his direct undermining of the slave industry in Nova Scotia, new laws were passed freeing Black slaves.
Though far from a perfect man, Blowers made an overall positive impact on Halifax and Nova Scotia at large.
Library Sources
Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society
Vital Statistics From Halifax Newspapers, 1840-1843
St. Paul's Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Additional Sources
1792 - A Map of the Norther and Middle States, by Morse, Maps of Antiquity
1793 The Governor's Fire Company, Halifax Fire Historical Society
Acadian Recorder, April 22, 1820, Nova Scotia Archives
Acadian Recorder, October 29, 1842, Nova Scotia Archives
Banishment Act of the State of Massachusetts, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
Bliss, Jonathan, Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Bliss, William Blowers, Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Blowers, Sampson Salter, Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Blowers, Sampson Salter, Fonds ID1105, Archives CANB
Blowers, Sampson Salter, The Loyalist Collection
Sampson Salter Blowers, Portrait, Nova Scotia Legislature
Boston Grammar School, Boston 400
The Boston Massacre, National Park Service
Choosing Sides: The Road to the Revolutionary War, Open Educational Resources
Edward Jordan: A Fate Worse Than Death, Deathsplanation
Fun Facts About Thomas Hutchinson, Boston Tea Party Ship
Halifax Municipal Cemeteries Commission
Halifax Infirmary - 135 Years Ago, Sisters of Charity, Halifax, Facebook
Hon. Sampson Salter Blowers C.J., Canadian Bar Review, number 575, 1949
Inflation Calculator, Bank of England
Letter to the People of Halifax by William Wilkie, Nova Scotia Legislative Library, HathiTrust
Modern Honour by Matthew Darly, The British Museum, 1777
Nova Scotia Commemorates Emancipation Day
Perspectives on the Boston Massacre: The Trials, Massachusetts Historical Society
Sampson Salter Blowers, Saint Paul's Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, photo by Hantsheroes, Wikipedia
Smith, T. Watson, D. D., The Salve in Canada, The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
Typhus, Encyclopedia Britannica
Uniacke, Richard John, Dictionary of Canadian Biography
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