Burns(2025). The Nova Scotia Post: Early Mail and Markings 1724-1877.

The Nova Scotia Post: Early Mail and Markings 1724-1877 by Patrick Burns. Images of letters written to and from the largely inhospitable and rocky coast of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia in the mid 18th Century are available in a single volume. BNAPS Exhibit Series No. 124, August 2025, spiral bound, 140 pages, 8.5×11, colour. ISBN: 978-1-989280-53-9. Stock # B4h923-124-1. Price: C$40.00. The primary catalyst for Patrick Burns to begin this work was the publication in 1985 of Dr JJ MacDonald’s book The Nova Scotia Post Its Offices, Masters and Marks 1700 – 1867. The large number of postmarks are due to Post Office Inspector Arthur Woodgate’s long tenure and the fact that he mandated that dispatching postmarks were to be struck on the reverse of the letter or envelope. The search for information and material in archives – including Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, the British Postal Museum & Archive  at Phoenix Place in London and the British National Archives at Kew Gardens – as well as universities and museums mainly in Canada and England, stamp publications, auction catalogues, antique shops and bookstores took many years. In the early 1980s the Author began compiling a census, now comprising thousands of pages, of detailed descriptions, photocopies initially and later scans of all of the rare, scarce and not so scarce markings and handstamps, earliest and latest recorded uses, with auction details and hammer prices. He built and maintains a separate register – currently in excess of 300 pages – entitled A Compilation of the Earliest Nova Scotia Military, Civilian & Related Correspondence and Documents in Private Collections – 1710 to 1776. The end result is an extensive reference library of Nova Scotia postal history. One evening in late 2015, after trying several phrases and word combinations and perusing numerous pages of his search engine, he came across an item of potential interest being offered by a book dealer in the United States. It was an early manuscript letter datelined Louisbourg, 4th December 1724, eleven years after construction of the great French fortress in Cape Breton. After a rapid series of communications and obtaining scans of the item, a deal was finally made. The letter, written in English by a Dutch trader in Louisbourg, is currently the earliest recorded letter from Nova Scotia, penned 11 years earlier than the previous record holder – also from Louisbourg – datelined 29 October 1735.