Glimpses of the Past: History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784

by W. O. Raymond

James Simonds, as mentioned in a former chapter, served in “the old French war” and was with his cousin Captain John Hazen in the campaign against Fort Ticonderoga. His subsequent career we have already touched upon and he will naturally continue to be a leading character in the story of the early history of St. John. He was evidently a man of stout constitution and vigor of body, for he not only survived all his contemporaries who came to St. John, but he outlived every member of the first New Brunswick legislature and every official appointed by the crown at the organization of the province. He passed to his rest in the house he had built at Portland Point at the patriarchal age of 95 years. His widow Hannah (Peabody) Simonds died in 1840 at the age of 90 years.

Of James Simonds’ large family of fourteen children several were prominent in the community. Hon. Charles Simonds was for years the leading citizen of Portland. He was born the same year the Loyalists landed in St. John, and was a member for St. John county in the House of Assembly from 1821 until his death in 1859, filling during that time the positions of speaker and leader of the government. Hon. Richard Simonds, born in 1789, represented the county of Northumberland in the House of Assembly when but twenty-one years of age and sat from 1810 to 1828, when he was appointed treasurer of the province. He filled for a short time the position of speaker of the assembly, and from 1829 until his death in 1836 was a member of the Legislative Council. Sarah, one of the daughters of James Simonds, married (Sept. 10, 1801) Thomas Millidge, the ancestor of the Millidges of St. John; her youngest sister Eliza married (Aug. 9, 1801) Henry Gilbert, merchant of St. John, from whom the members of this well known family are descended.

William Hazen, the third of the signers of the partnership contract, was born in Haverhill July 17, 1738. His great-grandfather, Edward Hazen, the first of the name in America, was a resident of Rowley, Massachusetts, as early as the year 191 1649. By his wife Hannah Grant he had four sons and seven daughters. The youngest son Richard, born August 6, 1669, inherited the large estate of his stepfather, George Browne, of Haverhill. This Richard Hazen was grandfather of James Simonds as well as of William Hazen; he married Mary Peabody and had a family of five sons and six daughters (one of the latter was the mother of James Simonds.) The third son, Moses Hazen was the ancestor of the Hazens of New Brunswick.

The wife of Moses Hazen was Abigail White, aunt of James White who came to St. John. Their sons John, Moses and William have a special interest for us. John, the oldest distinguished himself as a captain of the Massachusetts troops in the French war. He married Anne Swett of Haverhill, and had a son John, who came with his uncle William to St. John in 1775 and settled at Burton on the River St. John, where he married Dr. William McKinstry’s daughter, Priscilla, and had a family of twelve children. J. Douglas Hazen, of St. John, M. P. P., for Sunbury County, is one of his descendants.

Moses Hazen, the second son has been mentioned as commander of one of the companies of the Fort Frederick garrison in 1759; he became a Brigadier General in the American army in the Revolutionary war.

William Hazen, the third son and co-partner of Simonds and White, was born in Haverhill, July 17, 1738. He married, July 14, 1764, Sarah Le Baron of Plymouth.

Their family was even larger than that of James Simonds and included sixteen children. Of these Elizabeth married the elder Ward Chipman, Judge of the Supreme Court, and at the time of his death in 1824 administrator of government; Sarah Lowell married Thomas Murray (grandfather of the late Miss Frances Murray of St. John, one of the cleverest women the province has ever produced) and after his early decease became the wife of Judge William Botsford—their children were Senator Botsford, George Botsford and Dr. Le Baron Botsford; Charlotte married General Sir John Fitzgerald; Frances Amelia married Col. Charles Drury of the imperial army, father of the late Ward Chipman Drury.

Among the more distinguished descendants of William Hazen by the male line were Hon. Robert L. Hazen—popularly known as “Curly Bob”—recorder of the city of St. John, a very eminent leader in our provincial politics and at the time of his death a Canadian senator; also Robert F. Hazen who was mayor of St. John and one of its most influential citizens.

The elder William Hazen died in 1814 at the age of 75 years. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Chipman, died at the Chipman House May 18, 1852, the sixty-ninth anniversary of the landing of the Loyalists and her son, Chief Justice Chipman, died November 26, 1851, the sixty seventh anniversary of the organisation of the first supreme court of the province. The widow of Chief Justice Chipman died the 4th of July, 1876, the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. And finally a William Hazen, of the fourth generation, died June 17, 1885, the same day on which his ancestor left Newburyport for St. John one hundred and ten years before.

The first three signers of the articles of partnership under which business was undertaken at St. John in 1764, viz. Samuel Blodget, James Simonds and William Hazen, had each one-quarter interest in the business, the junior partners, Robert 192 Peaslie, James White and Richard Simonds had only one-twelfth part each. The articles of partnership provided that James Simonds and the three junior partners should proceed to St. John as soon as possible, and there do what business was necessary to be done during the co-partnership, and that Samuel Blodget and William Hazen should remain at Boston an Newburyport to forward supplies and receive what might be sent from St. John or elsewhere by the company. For some reason Robert Peaslie did not go to St. John. He married Anna Hazen, a sister of William Hazen, and settled in Haverhill, retiring not long afterwards from the company. Another of the junior partners, Richard Simonds, lost his life, as already stated, on the 20th January, 1765, in the defence of the property of the company when the Indians were about to carry it off.