Preserving Yarmouth Memories
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Pinkney's Point Community

Founding

Approximately 1762-1763


Industry

Fishing, mostly lobster fishing; sheep farming; ship yards.


Facts

Picture of Pinkney's point
  • Prosper Surette’s children built the first school house in 1895.
  • A Roman Catholic church was built in 1886.

History

  Captain Ephrim Cook was the first New Englander to settle in this area when he received a 923- acre land grant in 1762-62. His land included wooded areas such as Big Island and Little River Point, which later became known as Pinkney’s Point. Captain Cook died in 1821 and was buried on his farmland in Lower Melbourne. His headstone is in the Town Point cemetery.

  John Pinkney arrived from New York State in 1777. At 42, he married Louisa Cook, Captain Ephrim Cook’s daughter. He settled south of Cook’s Beach and the area became known as Pinkney land, later changed from Little River Point to Pinkney’s Point in his honour. In 1856 all lands known as Pinkney’s Point were sold at public auction to Prosper Surette. He moved, with his wife and 12 children, to the Pinkney homestead on the Sands. His children and their descendants populated the Point.

  In addition to Surette, common surnames found in later years include DeViller, Saulnier, Doucette, Clements, Muise, Pothier, Légère, Fitzgerald.



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Links

Pinkney's Point

Sources

Mrs. Yvonne A. Surette. “Pinkney’s Point”. Typescript, 1970

Place-names and places of Nova Scotia. Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1967

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