View source for Henry Nicholas Paint

{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name             = Henry Nicholas Paint
| honorific-suffix =
| smallimage       = Henry Nicholas Paint.jpg
| constituency_MP  = [[Richmond (Nova Scotia federal electoral district)|Richmond]]
| parliament       = Canadian
| majority         = 
| predecessor      = [[Edmund Power Flynn]]
| successor        = Edmund Power Flynn
| term_start       = 1882
| term_end         = 1887
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1830|04|10|df=y}}
| birth_place      = Belle Vue, Strait of Canso, [[Nova Scotia]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1921|09|29|1830|04|10|df=y}}
| death_place      = Artillery Place, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| nationality      = {{CAN}}
| spouse           = Christina St Clair McVean (first wife); Ella Cowdray (second wife)
| party            = [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]]
| relations        =
| children         = include (by first marriage) Flora St Clair, Mary Le Mesurier; and (by second marriage) Mander Paint
| residence        = Belle Vue, Strait of Canso, Port Hawkesbury
| alma_mater       = [[Acadia University|Wolfville Academy]]
| occupation       = Politician, shipowner, [[merchant]], property owner
| profession       =
| signature        =
| website          =
| footnotes        = {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=10913}}
}}
'''Henry Nicholas Paint''' (10 April 1830 &ndash; 29 September 1921) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[politician]], shipowner and [[merchant]].

==Career==
Henry Paint was the son of Nicholas Paint, [[Justice of the peace|JP]], by Mary Le Messurier, both of old [[Guernsey]] families which had been trading with Nova Scotia since at least the mid-18th century; a 'Paint Island', off Canso, is recorded in 1750.<ref>''Expeditions of Honour: the journal of John Salusbury in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1749–53'', p. 87, ed. R. Rompkey, 1982</ref> In 1817 his father, a merchant shipowner and agent at [[Arichat, Nova Scotia]], petitioned for land grants at Belle Vue on the [[Strait of Canso]], where he built a stone house and settled by 1822. Henry was educated in Guernsey and at the [[Wolfville, Nova Scotia|Wolfville]] Academy (today [[Acadia University]]), and served 1853-69 as a lieutenant-captain in the [[Non-Permanent Active Militia|Canadian Militia]] during the [[Fenian raids]].

He spent his early life as an insurance and commission agent in the [[City of Halifax]]. He was elected to the [[House of Commons of Canada]] in 1882 as a Member of the [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative Party]] for [[Richmond (Nova Scotia federal electoral district)|Richmond]], Nova Scotia. In Parliament, he was a strong supporter of Sir [[John A. Macdonald]], the first [[prime minister]] of Canada. He promoted a large number of public and infrastructure works for [[Cape Breton Island|Cape Breton]], including the first marine railway, the first steamers from [[Boston]], numerous wharves and warehouses, as well as post offices and lighthouses, and the bridge and railroad to [[Arichat]], and he was instrumental in negotiating favourable trading terms for the Dominion with [[Norway]] and the [[West Indies]]. He contested the three general elections of 1887, 1891 and 1904, but despite his successes for the community, he was defeated on each occasion.

Henry was a progressive merchant and community leader. He accumulated extensive property holdings on Cape Breton Island. Apart from the family estate of {{convert|130|acre|km2}} at Canso, in 1863 he acquired commercial property at [[Point Tupper, Nova Scotia]], a few miles from Port Hawkesbury, on a site 'exceedingly well situated for trade' at the main entry point between mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island. Here he constructed wharves and laid out a new township, selling plots doggedly to the end of his life; today he is commemorated there by 'Henry Paint Street'. His other holdings included the 'Paint seam' of coal mines which he opened up at Sydney in [[Victoria County, Nova Scotia]], as well as gypsum options at Brierley Brook in [[Antigonish, Nova Scotia|Antigonish]] County.

Henry Paint has a street, Paint Street, named after him in [[Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia|Port Hawkesbury]], Nova Scotia.

Henry Paint's long life is exceptionally well documented for the period, largely from letters written in his old age to his grandchildren, a selection of which were published in 2005. He died at his house at 3 Artillery Place, Halifax, aged 91.

His younger daughter, Mary Le Mesurier, married Sir [[Charles Tertius Mander]], first baronet, of the [[Mander family]], industrialists and philanthropists dominant in the English Midlands. His elder daughter, Flora St Clair, married Sir Charles's first cousin, Theodore Mander, builder of [[Wightwick Manor]], one of the most notable [[Arts and Crafts movement]] houses in England, owned since 1937 by the [[National Trust]].

== Electoral record ==
{{1882 Canadian federal election/Richmond}}
{{1887 Canadian federal election/Richmond}}
{{1891 Canadian federal election/Richmond}}

==Sources==
*[[Sir Nicholas Mander, 4th Baronet|Nicholas Mander]], '' Varnished leaves : a biography of the Mander family of [[Wolverhampton]], 1750-1950.'' Dursley: [[Owlpen Manor|Owlpen]] Press. 2004. {{ISBN|0-9546056-0-8}}.
*J. L. MacDougall, ''History of Inverness County, Nova Scotia'', April 1923, chap. XI, which gives an account of the Paint family in Nova Scotia
*''A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography'', ed. Geo. Maclean Rose, Toronto: Rose Publishing, 1886, p.&nbsp;442

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Nicholas Paint}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061023064518/http://www.owlpen.com/briefhistory.shtml Brief history of the Mander family]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081007204639/http://www.owlpen.com/mander-genealogy.shtml Paint of Nova Scotia family genealogy]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081007204656/http://www.owlpen.com/manderspaints.shtml Mander Brothers]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paint, Henry Nicholas}}
[[Category:1830 births]]
[[Category:1921 deaths]]
[[Category:Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:Politicians from Inverness County, Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:People from the Bailiwick of Guernsey]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Guernsey descent]]
[[Category:Acadia University alumni]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]