CHAPTER XIX.

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 207 stock and materials for improvement of the said lands within two years of date of grant.[73]

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.

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, 208 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.

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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.

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.

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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 £146 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 211 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]

“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:—

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“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.

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.
John Lewis Gage.

Daniel Disney.

John Fenton, Esq.

Beamsley Glasier, Esq.

Dr. Thomas Blair.

James Finlay.

Jacob Jordan.

George Johnstone.

Thomas Clapp.

Oliver Delancey, jr., Esq

Col. Frederick Haldimand.

William Keough.

Rev. Phillip Hughes.

Charles Morris, jr., Esq.

William Johnstone, Esq.

Synge Tottenham.

William Spry, Esq.

George Gillman.

Frederick Haldimand, jr.

Guy Johnstone.

TOWNSHIP OF SUNBURY.

Lot. No.
Alexander John Scott.

Dr. Robert Bell.

Thomas Hutchinson, Esq.

John Collins, Esq.

John Irving, jr., Esq.

John Desbruyeres. Esq.

Francis Greenfield.

Daniel Carleton.

Thomas Smelt, Esq.

Richard Shorne.

George Fead.

Edward Bulkely, Esq.

John Leake Burrage.

Oliver Shorne.

Isaac Caton.

John Norberg.

Hugh Parker.

James Allen.

James Simonds.

Nathaniel Rogers, Esq.

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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.”

John Lewis Gage.
Daniel Disney.
John Fenton, Esq.
Beamsley Glasier, Esq.
Dr. Thomas Blair.
James Finlay.
Jacob Jordan.
George Johnstone.
Thomas Clapp.
Oliver Delancey, jr., Esq
Col. Frederick Haldimand.
William Keough.
Rev. Phillip Hughes.
Charles Morris, jr., Esq.
William Johnstone, Esq.
Synge Tottenham.
William Spry, Esq.
George Gillman.
Frederick Haldimand, jr.
Guy Johnstone.

Alexander John Scott.
Dr. Robert Bell.
Thomas Hutchinson, Esq.
John Collins, Esq.
John Irving, jr., Esq.
John Desbruyeres. Esq.
Francis Greenfield.
Daniel Carleton.
Thomas Smelt, Esq.
Richard Shorne.
George Fead.
Edward Bulkely, Esq.
John Leake Burrage.
Oliver Shorne.
Isaac Caton.
John Norberg.
Hugh Parker.
James Allen.
James Simonds.
Nathaniel Rogers, Esq.

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.”

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