BLACK, MARTIN GAY, merchant and banker; b. 19 Nov. 1786 in Halifax, the son of the Reverend William Black* and Mary Gay; m. 3 Jan. 1809 Frances Smith of Westmorland, N.B., and they had seven daughters and six sons; d. 26 Oct. 1861 in Halifax.

Martin Gay Black, eldest son of the founder of the Methodist movement in Nova Scotia, was raised in a home dedicated to establishing Methodism in a colony whose officialdom scorned John Wesley’s evangelical religion. Educated at the latitudinarian Anglican academy in Windsor before 1802, Black followed his maternal grandfather in trade and by 1807 was established in business in Halifax with his brother-in-law James Hamilton. After dissolution of their firm in 1809, Martin Gay continued to supply British and East Indian goods and, like several Haligonian businessmen, rose to commercial prominence during the Napoleonic wars. By the late 1820s he had apparently retired from mercantile activities. In 1825 Black was an original partner in the Halifax Banking Company; he was its first secretary, and eventually served as president from September 1859 until his death. From 1832 to 1859 he owned, and rented out, the substantial wharf adjoining the Enos Collins*’ property on which the bank stood. In addition, he invested prudently in local financial ventures and private loans.

In 1839, when Lieutenant Governor Sir Colin Campbell* sought to broaden the representation of his councils, Black was offered a seat on the Legislative Council. Declining the honour previously accorded five of his seven fellow bankers, he explained that his “habits and feelings [were] much more in accordance with the life of a private than a public character.” Yet his life did not lack a public role. By 1814 he was a trustee of Zoar Chapel, and although this early appointment probably derived from his father’s dominance of the Methodist organization, Black remained a steward of both chapel and circuit. When interdenominational and charitable institutions, as well as the Methodists, sought his efficient handling of their too meagre resources, he served for many years as treasurer of the Nova Scotia Methodist District, the local missionary society, and the Nova Scotia Bible Society. He was also more briefly an officer of such associations as the Poor Man’s Friend Society, the Royal Acadian Society, the Halifax Visiting Dispensary, the Protestant Orphans’ Home, and the ymca. During half a century he subscribed, albeit nominally, to nearly every benevolent institution initiated in the city.

Black’s life reflected the conservative, trade-oriented character of Methodism in Nova Scotia. His transition from merchant to banker and his active participation in interdenominational organizations, however, made him one of the church’s most distinguished members. Contemporaries noted above all his “unostentatious usefulness.”

S. Buggey