Henry Hezekiah Cogswell

Henry Hezekiah Cogswell, lawyer, financier, office holder, politician and philanthropist; born April 12th, 1776 in Cornwallis, N.S., son of Mason Cogswell and Lydia Huntington; married June, 1805, Isabella Ellis and had ten children; died Nov. 9th, 1854, in Halifax. Three of Mason’s sons stayed on the land but Henry, second eldest, was selected for a professional career. Sent to King’s College in Windsor in 1789, young Cogswell received the rudiments of a higher education. He also made connections with fellow students and with faculty, which contributed to his gaining admission to the Halifax oligarchy. After graduation, he moved to Halifax, where he underwent legal training as a clerk of Richard John Uniacke, Solicitor General of Nova Scotia. Admitted to the bar in 1798, Cogswell quickly built up a flourishing law practice, benefiting from a scarcity of competition as well as from business created by litigation concerning prizes of war during the Napoleonic Wars. As he progressed in society, Cogswell gradually abandoned Presbyterianism in favour of the more socially desirable membership in the Church of England

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