Mount Uniacke, Nova Scotia
Richard John Uniacke
1753 - 1830
Richard John Uniacke was born in 1753 at Castletown, County Cork, Ireland, where his family belonged to the landed gentry.
When Richard was 16, he was articled to a Dublin attorney. Four years later, after a quarrel with his father, he left Ireland and sailed to seek his fortune in the New World.
He arrived in Nova Scotia by way of Philadelphia in 1774 (the year of the First Continental Congress), but returned to Ireland in 1777.
When Uniacke arrived in Philadelphia, he met Moses Delesdernier, a Swiss-born resident of Nova Scotia seeking settlers for lands at Shepody, on the Bay of Fundy. Impressed by the tall young Irishman’s appearance, Delesdernier asked him to come to Nova Scotia as his assistant. The offer was accepted. The next year, when Uniacke was 21, he married Martha Maria Delesdernier, daughter of his employer. His bride was not yet 13.
Late in 1776, Fort Cumberland, near the present day Nova Scotia - New Brunswick border, was unsuccessfully attacked by a force of American Revolutionary sympathizers from Maine during the “Cumberland Rebellion”. Uniacke was arrested on suspicion of treason and brought as a prisoner to Halifax, but the charge against him was dropped and he did not appear in court. Shortly after, Uniacke returned to Ireland to complete his legal training and in 1779 was admitted as an attorney of King’s Inn, Dublin. Uniacke arrived back in Nova Scotia in 1781 and later that year was appointed Solicitor General.
Uniacke entered politics in 1782 when he was first elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, later becoming Speaker of the House. He was known for his eloquence and wit. His private law practice flourished and his appointment as Advocate General in the Nova Scotia Vice-Admiralty Court brought him large fees. He began to build a substantial fortune. In the 1790s he purchased four lots on fashionable Argyle Street, in Halifax, where he built a large town house.
In 1808, Uniacke was appointed to the Legislative Council, the upper house of the Nova Scotia Legislature, serving as a member for the rest of his life. He died in his bed at Mount Uniacke in 1830 after a long career as a lawyer and politician in colonial Nova Scotia. He had served as the province's Attorney General from 1797, and 49 of his 77 years were spent in the public service of Nova Scotia.
The Family
Richard John Uniacke had twelve children, eleven with his first wife. His first wife, Martha Maria, died in 1803, when she was 40 years old. In 1808, Uniacke married Eliza Newton, daughter of a British military officer; the couple had one son.
Find out about Richard John’s son, also named Richard John, who fought against William Bowie in the last duel in Nova Scotia in 1819. 
Find out about sons Robert FitzGerald, Norman and James Boyle, a former premier of Nova Scotia.
The Uniackes were of Norman-Irish descent and probably came from a district of Brittany called St. Uniac, to settle in Ireland in the eleventh century.