Simeon Perkins

Colonel Simeon Perkins (February 24, 1735 – May 9, 1812) was a Nova Scotia militia leader, merchant, diarist and politician.

Perkins kept a sergeant and six men on guard duty twenty four hours a day until the privateers left the area.

[7] After suffering three years of similar sporadic raids, Perkins, on June 2, 1779, built a battery for the artillery and on October 31 launched their own privateer vessel named Lucy to bring battle to their adversaries.

[8] As well, Perkins wrote a successful appeal to the authorities in Halifax, and on December 13, 1778 Captain John Howard's company of the King's Orange Rangers arrived aboard the transport Hannah.

The company consisted of Howard, 2 lieutenants, 1 ensign, 3 sergeants, 2 or 3 corporals, 48 privates, and several camp followers, both women and children.

[13] Perkins also invested in privateering during the Napoleonic Wars, earning substantial returns from vessels such as the ships Charles Mary Wentworth, Duke of Kent and the famous brig Rover[14] A born leader, he held public office for a long period representing Queens County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1765 to 1768 and from 1770 to 1799.

His diary, which he began in 1766, remains a vital source for historians studying the society and economy of colonial Canada and notably the battle for identity and loyalty during the American Revolution.

[18] Perkins reports the tale circulating at the time of a young lady and two men living at New Minas, Nova Scotia on upper reaches of the Bay of Fundy, who, during a recent sunrise, saw as many as fifteen “ships in the air ... and a man forward with his hand stretched out.” Perkins continues, "the story did not obtain universal credit but some people believed it.

[19] Perkins' home was preserved through the efforts of the Queens County Historical Society in 1949 led by the author and historian Thomas Raddall.

However the house was closed to the public in 2015 after the province, citing shifting floor beams deemed the building a safety hazard.