THE OLD COUNTY OF SUNBURY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS.
A great impetus was given to the settlement of the wilderness parts of
Nova Scotia by the proclamations issued by Governor Lawrence in 1758
and 1759 offering free grants of lands to those who would become
settlers. In consequence of these proclamations attention was directed
to the St. John river. The fertile lands along its borders greatly
pleased the men of Massachusetts who explored it, and led to their
founding the Township of Maugerville, while, almost simultaneously,
Messrs. Simonds and White established their little colony at Portland
Point.
The Royal proclamation, issued at the Court of St. James in October,
1763, offering grants of lands to officers, non-commissioned officers
and soldiers that had served in the late French war, in token of his
majesty's appreciation of their conduct and bravery, had the effect of
creating a species of land-hunger which ere long led to a general
scramble for the possession of all lands that were of value and were
not already appropriated. However, up to the year 1765, only three
land grants on the St. John river were recorded at Halifax. Then came
the deluge! In the course of the month of October some twenty grants
were issued, comprising nearly 750,000 acres of the best land on the
River St. John, and immense tracts were granted in other parts of Nova
Scotia. Charles Morris, the surveyor general at this time, explains
that the vast number of applicants for land and their importunity were
due to the fact that the obnoxious "stamp act" was about coming into
operation and those desirous of securing lands were pressing hard for
their grants in order to avoid the stamp duties.
This land boom, if we may so term it, had the effect at first of
stimulating the settlement of the country, but it is, to say the
least, very doubtful whether subsequent growth and development were
not retarded by the rashness of Governor Wilmot and his council in
giving away the unsettled lands from the power of the crown and the
people in so prodigal a fashion.
The land grants of this period were usually made under the following
conditions:
First--The payment of a yearly quit rent of one shilling sterling to
be made on Michaelmas day for every fifty acres, the quit rent, to
commence at the expiration of ten years from the date of the grant.
Second.--The grantee to plant, cultivate and improve, or inclose,
one-third part within ten years, one-third part within twenty years
and the remaining third part within thirty years from the date of the
grant, or otherwise to forfeit such lands as shall not be actually
under improvement and cultivation.
Third.--To plant within ten years one rood of every thousand acres
with hemp, and to keep up the same or a like quantity during the
successive years.
Fourth.--For the more effectual settling of the lands within the
province the grantees shall settle on every five hundred acres one
family at least with proper stock and materials for improvement of
the said lands within two years of date of grant.[73]
[73] The last of the conditions above quoted was a somewhat variable
one, and is sometimes found in this form, "The grantees shall
settle one-fourth part within one year, in the proportion of
one family of Protestants (to consist at least of four
persons) to every thousand acres, one-fourth part within two
years, another fourth part within three years, and the
remaining fourth part within four years, otherwise the lands
remaining unsettled to revert to the crown."
The arrival of so considerable a number of English speaking
inhabitants as came to the River St. John in the course of a few years
after Lawrence had published his proclamations, rendered it necessary
that measures should be adopted for their government. When Nova Scotia
was divided into counties, in 1759, what is now New Brunswick seems to
have been an unorganized part of the County of Cumberland. For a year
or two the settlers on the River St. John were obliged to look to
Halifax for the regulation of their civil affairs, but this proved so
inconvenient that the Governor and Council agreed to the establishment
of a new county. The county was called Sunbury in honor of the English
secretary of state, the third Earl of Halifax[74] who was also
Viscount Sunbury.
[74] It was after the same English secretary of state that the city
of Halifax was named in 1749.
The first intimation we have of the formation of the new county is
contained in a letter of James Simonds to William, Hazen, dated at
Halifax, March 18, 1765, in which the former writes: "I am just
arrived here on the business of the inhabitants of St. Johns. * * I
have seen Captain Glasier, who informs me that he is getting a grant
of a large tract of land at St. Johns for a number of officers and
that your brother is one of them. St. Johns is made a county [Sunbury]
and I hope will soon make a formidable appearance." The decision of
the government in this instance seems to have been consequent upon the
visit of Mr. Simonds, who doubtless was supported in his advocacy of
the new measure by Capt. Beamsley Glasier. The latter was elected one
of the first two representatives of the county in the Nova Scotia
legislature, with Capt. Thos. Falconer as his colleague. The
announcement contained in Mr. Simonds letter anticipated the action of
the governor and council, for it was not until the 30th April, six
weeks later, that the matter was carried into effect by the adoption
of the following resolution, viz: "That St. John's River should be
erected into a county by the name of Sunbury, and likewise that Capt.
Richard Smith should be appointed a justice of the peace for the
County of Halifax." The terms of this grotesque resolution are
suggestive of the idea that in the estimation of his excellency and
the council of Nova Scotia the appointment of a Halifax J. P. was
about as important a matter as the organization of the County of
Sunbury, although the latter was as large as the entire peninsula of
Nova Scotia.
The County of Sunbury did not, as has been commonly supposed, include
the whole of the present province of New Brunswick. Its eastern
boundary was a line starting from a point "twenty miles above Point
Mispeck, up the Bay of Fundy, being the eastern point of Head Land of
the Harbor at the mouth of the River Saint John, thence to run north
by the needle till it meets the Canada Southern boundary."
Captain Beamsley Perkins Glasier was a very important and influential
person at this time in the affairs of the new county. He was an
officer in the 60th or Royal American Regiment, and subsequently rose
to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel. On the 14th December, 1764, Capt.
Glasier on behalf of himself, Capt. Thomas Falconer and others,
presented a memorial to the governor and council at Halifax for a
tract of land to include both sides of the River St. John and all the
islands from the lower end of Musquash Island to the Township of
Maugerville, and if there was not in the tract any river proper for
erecting mills then "as settlements can't be carried on without, the
memorialists pray for any river that may be found fit for the purpose
by their committee, with a tract of 20,000 acres of timber land as
near the mills to be erected as possible." Application was made at the
same time for a Point or Neck of land three-quarters of a mile from
Fort Frederick with 60 acres adjoining to it "for the making and
curing fish." It was ordered by the governor and council that the
lands on the river should be reserved for the applicants, but that the
point and sixty acres adjoining, situate near Fort Frederick, should
be a matter for further consideration. It is not improbable the point
referred to was the peninsula on the east side of St. John harbor, on
which the principal part of the city stands today. Had it been granted
to the applicants at this time it is hard to say what might have been
the effect on the future, but very likely St. John, as the "City of
the Loyalists," would have had no existence.
Capt. Beamsley Glasier and Capt. Thomas Falconer were the active
agents of an association or society, composed of more than sixty
individuals, who designed to secure and settle half a million acres of
land on the River St. John. The association included Governor Thomas
Hutchinson of Massachusetts, General Frederick Haldimand (afterwards
governor of Quebec), Sir William Johnson of New York, Capt. Isaac
Caton, Capt. William Spry, Capt. Moses Hazen, William Hazen, James
Simonds, Rev. John Ogilvie, Rev. Philip Hughes, Rev. Curryl Smith,
Richard Shorne, Daniel Claus, Philip John Livingston, Samuel Holland
and Charles Morris. The membership of the association represented a
very wide area for among its members were residents of Quebec,
Halifax, Boston, New York and the Kingdom of Ireland. A little later
the association was termed the Canada Company probably because General
Haldimand and some of its most influential members lived in Quebec.
The company obtained in October, 1765, a grant of five townships on
the River St. John known as the townships of Conway, Gage, Burton,
Sunbury and New-Town, of which all but the last were on the west side
of the river. The first three were named in honor of Gen. Henry S.
Conway, Secretary of State; Gen. Thomas Gage, who was one of the
grantees; and Brig. Gen. Ralph Burton, who was stationed in Canada at
the time. The location and extent of the townships may be generally
stated as follows:
1. Conway, 50,000 acres, included in its bounds the parish of
Lancaster and a part of Westfield extending from the mouth of the
river up as far as Brandy Point.
2. Gage or Gage-town, 100,000 acres, extended from Otnabog to Swan
Creek and included the present parish of Gagetown.
3. Burton, 100,000 acres, extended from Swan Creek to the River
Oromocto, including the present parish of Burton and part of the
adjoining parish of Blissville.
4. Sunbury, 125,000 acres, began at Old Mill Creek, a little below
Fredericton, and extended up the river as far as Long's Creek,
including the City of Fredericton, the parish of New Maryland and the
parish of Kingsclear. A part of this grant (20,000 acres) was added a
little later to the Township of New Town on the opposite side of the
river.
5. New Town extended about eight miles up the river from the Township
of Maugerville on the east side opposite Fredericton and at first
contained 20,000 acres, afterwards increased to 40,000.
It is an interesting circumstance that the site upon which Alexander
Gibson's mills at Marysville stand today, was selected by Beamsley
Glasier and his associates in 1765 as the most desirable mill site
along the St. John river. We even know the names of the pioneers of
milling in that locality.
In the month of July, 1766, the sloop, "Peggy and Molly" sailed from
Newburyport for St. John and on the way she called at Portsmouth and
took on board Capt. Beamsley Glasier and five mill-wrights, Jonathan
Young, Hezekiah Young, Joseph Pike, Tristram Quimby and John Sanborn
each of whom paid Simonds & White 20 shillings passage money. Soon
after their arrival they framed and erected the first saw mill on the
Nashwaak, probably the first built by English hands in the province.
In September, same year, the "Peggy and Molly" brought a large
consignment from New England for Capt. Glasier, including all the mill
gear, a quantity of seed corn, barley and garden seeds, some live
stock and fowls, household utensils and provisions. Capt. Glasier says
in a letter to Wm. Hazen written in August, 1766, "Young and all the
Carpenters intend to stay and settle here and he begs you'll be so
good as to acquaint his wife and family of it." No permanent
settlement, however, seems to have been made at the Nashwaak at this
time other than Anderson's trading post at the mouth of that stream.
Shortly after obtaining the grants of their townships the Canada
Company appointed Nathaniel Rogers of Boston their treasurer, and
Colonel Beamsley Glasier their agent, and levied a tax of one hundred
dollars on each member of the company to defray the expenses of
management. The conditions of the grants required the grantees to
settle one-fourth part of their lands in one year in the proportion of
four Protestant[75] persons for every 1,000 acres, one-fourth part in
the same proportion in two years, one-fourth in three years and the
remainder in four years, all lands remaining unsettled to revert to
the Crown.
[75] This word was designed to exclude the Acadians as settlers.
An immediate attempt was made by Col. Glasier, Capt. Falconer and the
more energetic of their associates to procure settlers and improve the
lands, but the task was a gigantic one and settlers of a desirable
class by no means easy to obtain. The difficulties the Company had to
encounter will appear in the references that will presently be made to
some very interesting letters and documents that have been preserved
respecting the settlement of the townships.
As early as the 27th of January, 1765, the plans of the Canada Company
had so far developed that Captain Falconer sent one Richard Barlow as
storekeeper to the River St. John, where the company's headquarters
was about to be established under the supervision of Colonel Glasier.
Barlow was promised a lease of 200 acres at a nominal rent, and at
once removed with his family to the scene of operations. There were
frequent business transactions in the course of the next six years
between Simonds & White and the agents of the Canada Company, who
figure in their accounts as "Beamsley Glasier & Co.". In the years
1765 and 1766, for example, Mr. Rogers, the treasurer of the Canada
Company, paid Hazen & Jarvis L146 for certain goods supplied by
Simonds & White at the River St. John.
The value of the lands on the River St. John had not escaped the
notice of the keen-eyed pioneers at Portland Point, and in the first
business letter extant James Simonds writes to Wm. Hazen, "the lands
are very valuable if they may be had." Again on the 16th December,
1764, he writes, "I have been trying and have a great prospect of
getting one or two Rights [or shares] for each of us concerned in our
company, and to have my choice in the townships of this River, the
land and title as good as any in America." Hazen & Jarvis manifested
much interest in the matter and soon afterwards obtained a footing
among the proprietors and promoters of the scheme.
The arrival of Colonel Glasier with his millwrights and carpenters in
the fall of 1766 has been already mentioned. The progress made in
settling the townships during the first two years was, however, slow
and the mills on the Nashwaak were some time in being completed.
Simonds & White on the 20th June, 1767, wrote to their partners in
Newburyport, "When Col. Glasier left this place he was in such a
hurry, the vessel being bound directly to sea, that we could not make
a complete settlement, not having the people's accounts up the River
that had worked on the mills, logging, etc. We have inclosed his order
for what could be settled. The lots in Gage Town are drawn, Moses and
William Hazen Nos. 53, 54, Mr. Simonds No. 12, none of them either the
best or the worst in the Township. * * If young cattle are cheap at
your place we recommend sending some every opportunity; the growth of
them is profitable, and the King's Instructions to the Government are
that three cattle be kept on every fifty acres of land granted."
The manner of laying out and drawing lots in the townships, as first
agreed on, did not work very well and led to a vigorous remonstrance
on the part of Capt. William Spry, which is dated at New York, April
11th, 1768. The "remonstrance" appears to have been framed after
consultation with others of the committee appointed by the Proprietors
to carry on the settlement of the Townships, and its contents were
approved at a meeting held the next day. The "remonstrance" was
addressed to Rev.'d Dr. Oglevie and William Johnstone, Esq., and to
such other Proprietors, or their attornies, as were then in New York.
The document is of sufficient historic value to be quoted in full:--
THE REMONSTRANCE
Of Capt. William Spry, one of the said Proprietors, sets forth,--
"That the manner in which the Townships of Gage and Sunbury have
been divided among the Proprietors, puts it out of their power to
settle their respective shares, the Lots being only sixty-five
rods in breadth, and from four to six miles in depth; that
therefore no family at the first settling of those lands will go
so far back into the Woods as to be deprived of the advantages of
the River, and that there is not breadth enough in the lots but
for very few families to be accommodated even supposing the
Proprietors under the necessity of granting away the most valuable
part of their lands, which would probably be the case, as the time
allowed to complete the settlement is nearly expired.
"That even granting those long narrow slips of land could be
settled, their being situated in so many places (in the several
townships) and so different from each other, makes it absolutely
impossible for a Proprietor to look after them with that care and
attention which the establishing of new settlements must require.
"That the inclosing those several lots must of course be attended
with great expense and the fixing their boundaries be very liable
to create disputes.
"Capt. Spry therefore proposes the following Plan to the Society,
viz.:--
"1st. That every Proprietor shall have his proportion of all the
lands in the several Townships (except Conway, as will be
hereafter explained) in one Township only, that Townships to be
fixed by Ballot.
"2nd. That when the Proprietors have drawn the Township their lot
is to be in, they draw again for their particular lot in that
Township.
"3rd. That the lots in each Township be divided so as to be as
nearly of equal value with one another as possible, the expense of
which to be defrayed by the Society in general, in case the
division cannot be settled by the survey already taken.
"4th. That all the Islands be divided into sixty-eight lots and
drawn for, except Perkin's Island which is to remain in common
among all the Proprietors.[76]
[76] It was perhaps at the suggestion of William Hazen or James
Simonds that in the grant of the Township of Burton, of
which they were grantees, there was included the "island
in Passamaquody bay called Perkins Island," now known as
Indian Island, where the fishing station of Simonds &
White had been for several years established.
"5th. That the Saw Mill also remain in common among all the
Proprietors for Twenty years from the date of the Grant, and then
to devolve to the Proprietors of the Township it is in.
"6th. That as the Townships of Gage and Sunbury have been surveyed
and the places for the Town Plots fixed by Charles Morris, Esq.,
surveyor of Nova Scotia, that as ten families were sent to the
River last Fall and could get no farther than Fort Frederick, by
reason of contrary winds, and therefore are not as yet fixed to
any particular Township, and as several other families have been
procured to be sent this Spring by different Proprietors, who
without an immediate drawing for the respective Townships cannot
know to what Township to send their settlers, it is proposed that
there should be a drawing for these Townships without loss of
time, and also for the lots in the Townships of Gage and Sunbury,
in the presence of two Magistrates of this City, which said lots
Capt. Spry will undertake to make as equal a division of as the
nature of the thing will allow.
"The Division of the Townships among the Proprietors is proposed
to be as follows, viz:--
"The Townships of Gage, Burton and Sunbury, containing 100,000
Acres each, to be divided among twenty Proprietors to each
Township, which will be 5,000 acres to each Proprietor.
"The Township of Conway, containing 50,000 acres, being
conveniently situated for the Fishery, to be divided among all the
Proprietors in equal lots and drawn for, which will be about 735
acres to each.
"The tract northwest of Maugerville of 20,000 acres (granted
separately) and that of 20,000 acres adjoining, granted with the
Township of Sunbury, to be made one Township of 40,000 acres and
to be called New-Town, and divided among eight Proprietors, which
will be 5,000 acres to each Proprietor, the same as in the other
Townships.
"By this method of dividing the townships all the lots will have a
sufficient breadth upon the River, and the worst lot there can
possibly be among them, will be of more value to any one
Proprietor than the five best lots of the several Townships laid
out as they are at present."
Signed W. SPRY.
A meeting was immediately held at the house of George Burns,
innholder, in New York, and it was unanimously decided by the
proprietors of the townships and their agents, to annul the former
division of lands and adopt the proposals of Capt. Spry. In accordance
with this decision the proprietors or their representatives, held a
meeting on Wednesday the 20th of April, 1768, and in the presence of
Dirck Brinckerhoff and Elias Desbrosses, justices of the peace and
aldermen of the City and County of New York, made a drawing of the
townships in the manner proposed, the result of which appears below.
[Illustration: Map of the River St John in the province of Nova Scotia.
Exhibiting The Grants to Officers &c. in 1765 with other
patents.
From the Survey of Mr Chas Morris and other surveyors.]
TOWNSHIP OF GAGE.
Lot. No.
1. John Lewis Gage.
2. Daniel Disney.
3. John Fenton, Esq.
4. Beamsley Glasier, Esq.
5. Dr. Thomas Blair.
6. James Finlay.
7. Jacob Jordan.
8. George Johnstone.
9. Thomas Clapp.
10. Oliver Delancey, jr., Esq.
11. Col. Frederick Haldimand.
12. William Keough.
13. Rev. Phillip Hughes.
14. Charles Morris, jr., Esq.
15. William Johnstone, Esq.
16. Synge Tottenham.
17. William Spry, Esq.
18. George Gillman.
19. Frederick Haldimand, jr.
20. Guy Johnstone.
TOWNSHIP OF SUNBURY.
Lot. No.
1. Alexander John Scott.
2. Dr. Robert Bell.
3. Thomas Hutchinson, Esq.
4. John Collins, Esq.
5. John Irving, jr., Esq.
6. John Desbruyeres. Esq.
7. Francis Greenfield.
8. Daniel Carleton.
9. Thomas Smelt, Esq.
10. Richard Shorne.
11. George Fead.
12. Edward Bulkely, Esq.
13. John Leake Burrage.
14. Oliver Shorne.
15. Isaac Caton.
16. John Norberg.
17. Hugh Parker.
18. James Allen.
19. James Simonds.
20. Nathaniel Rogers, Esq.
TOWNSHIP OF BURTON.
"The Town Plot not being fixed this Township could not as yet be
divided into lots, but is to be as soon as possible: the
Proprietors who drew the Township were: John Porteus, Thomas
Falconer, sen'r, Esq., John York, Esq., Daniel Robertson, Joseph
Peach, Esq., William Parker, Charles Pettit, Ralph Christie, Esq.,
Daniel Claus, Esq., William Evins, Esq., John Campbell, Esq.,
Joseph Howard, John Cox, Thomas Falconer, jun'r, John Treby, Esq.,
James Porteus, Richard Burton, John Livingston, Esq., Samuel
Hollandt, Esq., Benjamin Price, Esq.
TOWNSHIP OF NEW TOWN, OR THE FORTY THOUSAND ACRE TRACT.
"This Township is under the same circumstances with that of
Burton; the Proprietors who drew the Township were: Thomas
Moncrief, Esq., Rev. John Ogelvie, D. D., Moses Hazen, James
Jameson, William Hazen, Richard Williams, Charles Tassel, Esq.,
and James Hughes."
It was agreed that the various islands in the River St. John belonging
to the townships should be surveyed as soon as possible and divided
into 68 lots. It was also agreed that the Saw Mill, erected or in
course of erection in the Township of New Town should remain the
common property of all the members of the society for the space of
twenty years from the date of the grant, expenses attending the
building or repairing of the mill to be borne by all the proprietors
of the several townships, and after the expiration of twenty years to
become the property of the grantees of New Town.
It will be noticed that in the division of the townships the Rights,
or shares, of Moses and William Hazen were drawn in New Town and that
of James Simonds in Sunbury. Mr. Simonds evidently was quite satisfied
for he wrote to Hazen & Jarvis, June 22, 1768.
"The Township of Sunbury is the best in the Patent and New Town is
the next to it according to the quantity of land, it will have a
good Salmon-Fishery in the river which the mills are to be built
on, which runs through the centre of the tract. The mills are to
be the property of the eight proprietors of the Township after
seventeen years from this time, and all the Timber also the moment
the partition deed is passed."