In his lecture on New Brunswick history delivered in 1840, Moses H. Perley says that in the year 1763 the Maugerville township was settled by 200 families, comprising about 800 persons, who came from Massachusetts in four vessels. There cannot be the slightest doubt that Mr. Perley has greatly over-estimated the number of the original settlers. We have every reason to believe that the population of the township continued steadily to increase and about two years later (Dec. 16, 1766), a census was submitted to the government of Nova Scotia by Lieut. Governor Francklin showing that there were then living at Maugerville 77 men, 46 women, 72 boys and 66 girls, a total of 261 souls; and it may be added that during the year 17 new settlers had arrived and 14 children were born, while the number of deaths was but 3. That the new settlers were anxious to fulfil the conditions of their grants is shown by the fact that they already possessed 10 horses, 78 oxen and bulls, 145 sows, 156 young cattle, 376 sheep and 181 swine. Their crop for the year included: Wheat 599 bushels, Rye 1,866 do., Beans 145 do., Oats 57 do., Pease 91 do., Flaxseed 7 do. A grist and saw-mill had been built and two sloops were 160 owned by the settlers. Some attempt had also been made at raising flax and hemp.
The settlement at Maugerville was visited by Hon. Charles Morris, the surveyor general of Nova Scotia, in 1767, and it is not improbable the census taken by order of Lieut. Governor Franklin was made under his supervision. Mr. Morris was evidently much surprised at the progress the settlers had made, for in a letter of the 25th January, 1768, he says:—
“Opposite to Oromocto River, upon the northerly side of the River St. John’s, is the English settlement of disbanded soldiers from New England, consisting of about eighty families, who have made great Improvements, and are like to make an established Settlement there. And by some tryals they have made of hemp upon the intervale it succeeded beyond their expectation. I measured myself Hemp that was nine feet high, that had not come to its full growth in the latter end of July. They generally have about twenty bushels of Maze and about twenty bushels of Wheat from an acre of land, that was only cleared of its woods and harrowed without ever having a Plow in it. When I was on the River last year, I saw myself eighty bushes of Indian Corn raised from one acre of land that had been ploughed and properly managed. I would observe that the Corn raised on this River is not the same kind as the Corn in New England; neither the climate or soil would be suitable to it; they get their seed from Canada and they sow it in rows about three feet distant as we do Pease in our gardens; it takes about a bushel to sow an acre; the ears grow close to the ground as thick as they can stick one by another, pointing outwards like a Cheveaux de Frise upon each side of the rows; the richness of the soil, the manner of sowing it and of its growing, may account very easily for its producing so much to the acre. Some of the old French Inhabitants of the River have informed me that they have raised, in a seasonable year, near one hundred bushels of Indian Corn per acre.”
The alluvial character of the soil of Maugerville, its freedom from stone and from dense forest growth, no doubt attracted the first English settlers and decided the choice of their location, just as the same features attracted the brothers d’Amours and others of the French nearly a century before. The French, too, recorded as the principal drawback of the location, the losses and annoyances consequent upon the inundation of their fields and premises by the spring freshets.[60] A short experience convinced the English settlers that the complaints of their predecessors were well founded.
As Maugerville divides with Portland Point the honor of being the first permanent English settlement at the River St. John, it is proper to describe in some fulness of detail the movements of its founders. They were a sturdy and adventurous race. The great majority had seen active service in the “old French war”—some of them had fought under Wolfe at the taking of Quebec. The Indian war-cry was a sound not unfamiliar to their ears, and so their interview with the savages of Aukpaque, upon their arrival, taught them the dangers of their situation. 161 It really required more hardihood to plunge into the wilderness than to settle under the protection of Fort Frederick at the river’s mouth.
The proximity of the Indian town of Aukpaque; a few miles above, probably induced the majority of the Maugerville people to settle in the lower part of the township. At any rate for some years no one resided farther up the river than lot No. 57, about five miles below the Nashwaak, where lived the Widow Clark, a resolute old dame whom nothing could dismay.
It is interesting to note that Simonds and White contemplated at one time the erection of a Truck-house at Maugerville for their Indian trade, and a frame was prepared for the building, but before it was raised some difficulties arose between the Indians and the Whites and the matter was deferred for a year or two. The frame was then sent up the river in the sloop “Bachelor” and landed on lot No. 66, belonging to Mr. Simonds, “near the then upper settlement of Maugerville.” This was the only place available as none of the settlers desired to have the Truck-house near them. However the carpenters found the frame so warped as not to be worth setting up and the project was abandoned.
The first band of settlers came to Maugerville in 1763, probably in small vessels hired for the occasion. From time to time the colony received additions from New England. The later comers usually took their passage in some of the vessels owned by Messrs. Hazen, Simonds and White, which furnished the readiest means of communication. There are many interesting items in the account books[61] kept by Simonds and White at their store at Portland Point in connection with the Maugerville settlers. For example Captain Francis Peabody is charged with the following items, under date January 15, 1765:—
“To passage in schooner of 4 Passengers from New England at 12s. £ 2 8 0 Freight of 9 Heiffers at 12s. 5 8 0 Club of Cyder for 5 men at 13s. 6d. each 3 7 6 5 Tons of Hay for cattle on passage 10 0 0 Freight of sheep 3 6 0
| “To passage in schooner of 4 Passengers from New England at 12s. | £ 2 | 8 | 0 |
| Freight of 9 Heiffers at 12s. | 5 | 8 | 0 |
| Club of Cyder for 5 men at 13s. 6d. each | 3 | 7 | 6 |
| 5 Tons of Hay for cattle on passage | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Freight of sheep | 3 | 6 | 0 |