page_title: Ministers Island
section_title: Early European settlement
hierarchical_section_title: Ministers Island / Early European settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: Home of Rev. Samuel Andrews. Built c. 1788 - 1791. This photograph c. 1985, showing Edward Marxwell addition of 1904. Charlotte County Archives
context_page_description: Ministers Island is an historic Canadian island in New Brunswick's Passamaquoddy Bay near the town of St. Andrews.
  The 200-hectare island stands several hundred metres offshore immediately northeast of the town and is a geographical novelty in that it is accessible at low tide by a wide gravel bar suitable for vehicular travel.
  Ministers Island became famous in the last decade of the nineteenth century as the summer home of Sir William Van Horne, the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. By the time of Van Horne’s death in 1915, the island had been transformed into a small Xanadu, sporting a sandstone mansion furnished in the most lavish late Edwardian manner, manicured grounds, scenic roads, greenhouses turning out exotic fruits and vegetables, as well as a breeding farm producing prize-winning Clydesdale horses and Dutch Belted cattle. It was the most spectacular of many palatial summer homes in St. Andrews, which since the creation of the St. Andrews Land Company in 1888 and the arrival of Van Horne in 1891, had become a watering place of note on the Canadian east coast.
context_section_description: The first European colonists on the island, John Hanson and Ephraim Young, arrived in 1777. At the time, the St. Andrews area consisted primarily of a trading post operated from Saint John and an Indigenous presence. Hanson and Young were the first United Empire Loyalists to arrive in the area following the American Revolutionary War, settling on Consquamcook Island with their families. Traces of early European buildings were excavated in the 1970s. Following a further influx of Loyalists in 1783, Hanson and Young petitioned Governor General Carleton in Halifax for the title to the island; however, Captain Samuel Osborn of the Arethusa had previously been awarded the land. Hanson and Young left the island by 1784.
  In 1791, the island was sold to the Town's minister, the Reverend Samuel Andrews, for whom the island was later named. Though Andrews built a small stone cottage on the island, still standing today, by 1798 he had put the property up for sale once again. There were, however, apparently no takers, as the island was still in his possession upon his death in 1818. The land was passed on to his son Elisha Andrews, St. Andrew's Sheriff, then to Elisha's son Marshall, and finally to Marshall's son Edwin. Edwin and Marshall Andrews lived on the island until 1891, at which point it was sold to Sir William Van Horne.
caption: Home of Rev. Samuel Andrews. Built c. 1788 - 1791 showing Edward Marxwell addition of 1904 with newly replaced roofs
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