One
of the first families was the Paints. They were of ancient lineage and Norman-French ancestry. They can trace their name back
to William the Conqueror .
.
Sir Gaspard Le Marchant, Governor of Nova Scotia in 1852 was a connection of the family, his grandmother having been
Miss Paint.
Nicholas Paint was born at St. Peter's Port, Guernsey, British Channel Islands in 1790. He was
educated in London. He could speak English, French, and Spanish,
Before coming to Cape Breton
Mr Paint was well seasoned in the business world and he and his father owned seven sailing vessels. He was a representative of the firm Janvin and Company of Jersey and London, and
landed at Arichat, C.B. in 1816, having authority over their several agencies in America. He later returned to Guernsey where he
formed with his father as one of the members the firm of Thomas Moulin and Co. As manager of this firm, he sailed with a staff
of clerks for the Strait of Canso, where he did a large West Indies Trade for several years
, afterwards carrying it on in his own name.
In 1820 Mr. Paint was appointed Justice of the Peace for the Island of Cape Breton by Sir James Kempt.
A few years later he brought his wife, Mary
LeMessurier also of St. Peters Port. and three children over (Mary, Rachel, and Peter), and had a large and commodious stone house built for the family in
what is now the northern part of Hawkesbury but at that time was called Belle Vue.
Mr Paint, his wife and sons where responsible for possilily the first church, school,
and many businesses in the town. Peter Paint was the town's first mayor.
The Paints are all buried in the Pioneer Cemetery, Embree's Island which is presently
left in a torn up state from the proposed sewer plant.
Sources: partly from
From J.L. MacDougall's book History of Inverness County published 1922