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

by W. O. Raymond

Plan of Grants to Simonds & White

The first grant at the mouth of the River St. John included only a small part of the great marsh—then called by the Indians, Sebaskastaggan—and a further tract in that locality was applied for by James Simonds in a memorial to the government of Nova Scotia. The memorial stated that James and Richard Simonds and James White had obtained a grant of 2,000 acres of mountainous and broken land at the mouth of the River Saint John in the year 1765, which had been improved by building houses, a saw mill and lime kiln, and the company had settled upwards of thirty people on it who were engaged in carrying on those two branches of business, but that the wood and timber so necessary for 232 them was all consumed, therefore praying that 2,000 acres additional to the eastward of the said tract might be granted to the said James Simonds.

It can scarcely be believed that all the wood from the harbor of St. John to the Kennebeccasis had been consumed in the five years of the company’s operations at Portland Point. But probably the lumber in the vicinity of the saw-mill and the wood most convenient to the lime kilns had been cut and this was sufficient to afford a pretext for another grant. Mr. Simonds’ memorial was considered by the Governor in Council December 18, 1769, and approved. The grant did not issue till May 1, 1770. The bounds are thus described:

“Beginning at a Red Head in a little Bay or cove to the eastward of the Harbor at the mouth of Saint John’s River described in a former grant to James Simonds in the year 1765, being the south eastern bound of the said grant, thence to run north 75 degrees east 170 chains, thence north 15 degrees west 160 chains or until it meets the river Kennebeccasis, and from thence to run westerly until it meets the north eastern bound of the former grant.”

The boundaries of the second grant may be readily traced on the plan. Like the former grant it included a good deal more than the 2,000 acres it was supposed to contain, and in this case, too, the grant escaped curtailment. The grant was in the name of James Simonds, but the other partners relied upon the clause in their business contract as a sufficient guarantee of their interests.

It must be admitted that as the first adventurers to settle in an exposed and at times perilous situation the first grantees of the lands at the mouth of the River St. John were entitled to special consideration. James Simonds had to make repeated visits to Halifax in connection with the business at St. John and these visits were sometimes attended with risk as will be seen from the following extract of one of his earliest letters.

Halifax, Oct’r 1st, 1764.

“Last night arrived here after four days passage from St. John’s—the first 24 hours were at sea in a severe storm, the second passed a place called the Masquerades where there was seas and whirlpools enough to have foundered the largest ships—we were providentially saved with the loss of all our cable and anchor endeavoring to ride at anchor till the tide slacked, but in vain. It was unlucky for us that we happened to fall in with that tremendous place in the strength of flood tide in the highest spring tide that has been this year. Gentlemen here say it is presumptuous to attempt to return the same way at this season in an open boat; but as the boat and men are at Pisiquit (Windsor), and I have no other way to get to St. John in season for my business this fall, shall get our business done here as soon as may be and return the same way I came. The plea of the above difficulty will have a greater weight than any other to have business finished here immediately. This morning I waited on the Governor, Secretary and all officers concerned in granting license, etc., who assure me that my request shall be granted directly so that I hope to be on my way to St. John’s tomorrow.”

We cannot but admire the courage and enterprise of a man who after so fatiguing and perilous a journey, was ready, on the second day after his arrival in Halifax, to remount his horse and travel forty-odd miles over a very rough road to Windsor to face again the perils of the Bay of Fundy in an open boat at a stormy season.