Glimpses of the Past Part 19

[57] Just below the town plot of Fredericton.

"On the arrival of the exploring party at St. Anns, they lost no time in making a shelter for themselves nearly opposite the river Nashwaak ... and they commenced their survey at the small gravelly point near Government House, with the intention of surveying a township to terminate twelve miles below that place, but after surveying the courses of the river about four miles downward, a large company of Indians, came down about nine miles, from their Priest's residence with his Interpreter, all having painted faces of divers colours and figures and dressed in their war habits. The chiefs, with grave countenances, informed the adventurers that they were trespa.s.sers on their rights; that the country belonged to them and unless they retired immediately they would compel them."

"The reply made to the chiefs was to this effect: that the adventurers had received authority from the Governor of Halifax to survey and settle any land they should choose at the River Saint John; that they had never been informed of the Indians claiming the village of Saint Anne, but as they declared the land there to be their property (though it had been inhabited by the French, who were considered ent.i.tled to it, till its capture by the English) they would retire further down the river.

* * * The surveying party removed their camp, according to their promise, almost as far down as the lower end of Oromocto Island on the east side of the river, whence they finished their survey twelve miles below the first mentioned bounds and returned to Fort Frederick."

The circ.u.mstances that led to delay in procuring the grant from government have already been mentioned in this chapter.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Fisher's statement--corroborated by Moses H. Perley--that the township was laid out in lots in the earlier part of 1762 is correct, for on Sept. 2nd a meeting of the intending settlers was advertised to be held for the purpose of drawing the lots which were described as "already laid out." But the statement of Mr.

Fisher (in which he is again followed by Moses H. Perley) that one or two families from Newburyport accompanied the surveying party in the month of May, and brought with them the frame of a small dwelling house and boards to cover it, together with a small stock of cattle, and that on the third day after their arrival the house was finished and inhabited--is probably a misapprehension resulting from the confounding of incidents, which occurred in the course of the same year but were separated by an interval of several months. At any rate the late John Quinton, who was born in 1807, states most emphatically in a letter to Joseph W. Lawrence that it was not until the 28th day of August that his grand-parents, Hugh and Elizabeth Quinton, Capt.

Francis Peabody and family, James Simonds and others came to reside at the River St. John. He says that accomodation was provided for Quinton and his wife, Miss Hannah Peabody and others in the barracks at Fort Frederick, where on the very night of their arrival was born James Quinton, the first child of English speaking parents, whose birth is recorded at St. John.[58] The remainder of the party encamped on the east side of the harbor at the site of an old French Fort, the place since known as Portland Point, or Simonds' Point, where they erected a dwelling into which the Quintons and others in Carleton soon afterwards removed. Hannah Peabody was at this time about twelve years old: she afterwards became the wife of James Simonds.

[58] John Quinton says he heard this story many times from his grandmother's lips. She was a woman of remarkable memory and lived until the year 1835. It would seem very improbable she could be mistaken as to the date of such an event.

CHAPTER XVI.

PROGRESS OF THE MAUGERVILLE SETTLEMENT.

The township of Maugerville, as described in the grant of October 31, 1765, began "at a Pine Tree on a point of land a little below the Island called Mauger's Island," extending 12-1/2 miles up the river with a depth of nearly 11 miles. It embraced the princ.i.p.al part of the parishes of Maugerville and Sheffield, including Oromocto Island and "the Island lying off Wind-mill Point called Middle Island." In the grant the "Rights" or "Shares" were fixed at 500 acres but the surveyor-general of Nova Scotia, Charles Morris, had intended that the grantees should have 1,000 acres each on account of their being the first adventurers and also on account of the large proportion of sunken lands and lakes within the limits of the township.

At the time the Maugerville grant was made out the obnoxious Stamp Act was about coming into force in America and the Crown Land Office at Halifax was besieged with people pressing for their grants in order to save the stamp duties. In the hurry and confusion existing Mr. Morris says that the shares of the township were inadvertently fixed at 500 acres each, whereas it had been his intention to lay out one hundred farm lots, each forty rods wide and extending one mile deep into the country, and to give each grantee the balance of his 1,000 acres in the subsequent division of the rest of the township. It is quite likely the Maugerville settlers were glad to accept the smaller shares allotted them in view of the fact that they had been so near losing the whole by the decision of the British government to reserve the lands for the disbanded regulars of the army.

By the terms of the grant it was provided that all persons who failed to settle on their lots, with proper stock and materials for the improvement of their lands, before the last day of November, 1767, should forfeit all claim to the lands allotted them. The township was supposed to consist of 200 shares but only 61 shares were included in the grant of 1765. At least two other grants were pa.s.sed prior to the coming of the Loyalists--one in 1770, the other early in 1783; but there were still some vacant lots which were gladly taken up by these unfortunate exiles. For their accomodation also a grant was made Dec.

22, 1786, of the rear of the township and such men as Samuel Ryerson, Justus Earle, Joseph Ryerson, Wm. Van Allen, Abraham Van Buskirk, Samuel Tilley and Lodewick Fisher[59] were among the grantees.

[59] Samuel Tilley and Lodewick Fisher were the progenitors respectively of Sir Leonard Tilley and Hon. Charles Fisher, the one came from Long Island, N. Y., the other from New Jersey. It is curious they should have settled on adjoining lots in view of the intimate relations of their distinguished grandsons in the battle for responsible government. The other names given above are those of officers in Lt.-Col. Van Buskirk's battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers who were of Dutch descent.

Nearly all the original settlers in the township of Maugerville were from Ma.s.sachusetts, the majority from the single county of Ess.e.x. Thus the Burpees were from Rowley, the Perleys from Boxford, the Esteys from Newburyport, while other families were from Haverhill, Ipswich, Gloucester, Salem and other towns of this ancient county which antedates all others in Ma.s.sachusetts but Plymouth. These settlers were almost exclusively of Puritan stock and members of the Congregationalist churches of New England.

The list of the grantees of the Township of Maugerville, alphabetically arranged, includes the following names:--

Benjamin Atherton, Jacob Barker, Jacob Barker, jr., Thomas Barker, Richard Barlow, Benjamin Brawn, David Burbank, Joseph Buber, Jeremiah Burpee, Jonathan Burpee, James Chadwell, Thomas Christy, Joseph Clark, Widow Clark, Edward Coy, Moses Davis, Jos. F. W. Desbarres, Enoch Dow, Joseph Dunphy, John Estey, Richard Estey, Richard Estey, jr., Zebulun Estey, Joseph Garrison, Beamsley P. Glazier, William Harris, Thomas Hart, Geo. Hayward, Nehemiah Hayward, Jeremiah Howland, Ammi Howlet, Samuel Hoyt, Daniel Jewett, Richard Kimball, John Larlee, Joshua Mauger, Peter Moores, William McKeen, Elisha Nevers, Jabez Nevers, Phinehas Nevers, Samuel Nevers, Nathaniel Newman, Daniel Palmer, Moses Palmer, Jonathan Parker, Francis Peabody, Oliver Peabody, Richard Peabody, Samuel Peabody, Stephen Peabody, Asa Perley, Israel Perley, Oliver Perley, Humphrey Pickard, Moses Pickard, Hugh Quinton, Nicholas Rideout, Thomas Rous, John Russell, Ezekiel Saunders, William Saunders, Gervas Say, John Shaw, Hugh Shirley, James Simonds, Samuel Tapley, Giles Tidmarsh, jr., Samuel Upton, James Vibart, John Wa.s.son, Matthew Wa.s.son, John Whipple, Jonathan Whipple, Samuel Whitney, Jediah Stickney, John Smith, Johnathan Smith, Charles Stephens, Isaac Stickney.

The majority of the surnames in the above list will seem wonderfully familiar to the residents of the St. John river counties where their descendants today form a large and influential element in the community.

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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 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 princ.i.p.al 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.

[60] See previous chapters, pp. 63, 110.

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 st.u.r.dy 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. 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage in schooner of 4 Pa.s.sengers 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 pa.s.sage 10 0 0 Freight of sheep 3 6 0

[61] Several of these books are now in my possession.--W. O. R.

In the same schooner there came Jacob Barker, jun., Oliver Perley, Zebulon Estey, Humphrey Pickard and David Burbank, each of whom paid twelve shillings pa.s.sage money from Newburyport to St. John and 13s.

6d. for "his club of Cyder" on the voyage. David Burbank brought with him a set of Mill irons, which is suggestive of enterprise, but his stay appears to have been but brief, for on the 20th April, 1767, he sold his land (about five miles below the Nashwaak) to William Brawn, the son of an original grantee of the township, and the deed was acknowledged before John Anderson, Justice of the Peace at Moncton[62]

the 29th of April.

[62] John Anderson was one of the first magistrates of the original county of Sunbury, appointed Aug. 17, 1765. He had a trading post, which he called "Moncton," just above the Nashwaak on the site of the modern village of Gibson. The deed referred to above is one of the earliest on record in the province.

The upper boundary of the Township of Maugerville now forms a part of the dividing line between the Counties of York and Sunbury. The lower boundary of the township began near the foot of Maugers' Island, about two miles above the Queens-Sunbury county line. Middle Island, which occupies a middle position between Oromocto Island above and Mauger's (or Gilbert's) Island below, was in a sense the centre of the township, and it must not be forgotten by the reader that what was in early days the princ.i.p.al section of the Township of Maugerville is now the Parish of Sheffield. The lots are numbered beginning at Middle Island and running down the river to No. 39, then starting again at the upper end of the grant, at the York county line, and running down the river to Middle Island, so that the last lot, No. 100, adjoins the first lot. The oldest plan of the township in the Crown Land office shows the state of settlement at a date subsequent to that of the original grant, and during the interval a good many changes had occurred. The early grantees were about eighty in number.

Reference to the accompanying plan of the river will show the locations of the early settlers of Maugerville; they will be mentioned in order ascending the river.

The lower ten lots of the township and Mauger's Island were granted to Joshua Mauger. Just above were the lots of Gervas Say, Nehemiah Hayward, John Russell, Samuel Upton, Zebulon Estey, John Estey, Richard Estey and Edward Coy.

At the head of Mauger's Island were the lots of Matthew Wason, Samuel Whitney and Samuel Tapley.

Between Mauger's Island and Middle Island the lots were those of Jeremiah Burpee, Jonathan Burpee, Jacob Barker, Daniel Jewett, Ezekiel Saunders, Humphrey Pickard, Moses Pickard, Jacob Barker, jr., Isaac Stickney and Jonathan Smith.

Opposite Middle Island, in order ascending, were Thomas Barker, John Wason, Daniel Palmer, Richard Kimball, Joseph Garrison, Samuel Nevers, Peter Mooers, Richard Estey, jr., Jabez Nevers, Enoch Dow and Hugh Quinton.

Between Middle and Oromocto islands were Thomas Christie, Elisha Nevers, Jedediah Stickney, Stephen Peabody, Capt. Francis Peabody and William McKeen.

Opposite Oromocto Island were Israel Perley (at the foot of the island), Lt.-Col. Beamsley P. Glasier, John Whipple, Nathaniel Rideout, Capt. Francis Peabody, Alexander Tapley, Phineas Nevers, Joseph Dunphy, William Harris, Ammi Howlet, Samuel Peabody and Oliver Peabody.

Above Oromocto Island we find the lots of Asa Perley, Oliver Perley, George Munro, James Simonds, Joseph Buber, Joseph Shaw, Benjamin Brawn, Daniel Burbank, Thomas Hartt and the Widow Clark. Thence to the upper boundary of the township, a distance of two miles, there were at first no settlers, but in the course of time Richard Barlow, Nehemiah Beckwith, Benjamin Atherton, Jeremiah Howland and others took up lots.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF MAUGERVILLE, INCLUDING SHEFFIELD.]

The names of the majority of the Maugerville grantees appear in the account books kept by Simonds and White at their store at Portland Point and a lot of interesting family history might be gleaned from the old faded pages. There are other items of interest in the records of the old County of Sunbury.

In nearly all the early settlements made on the River St. John some encouragement was offered for the erection of a mill, and when the signers under Captain Francis Peabody met at Andover in April, 1762, previous to their leaving Ma.s.sachusetts, it was agreed that each signer should pay six shillings towards erecting a mill in their township. The streams in Maugerville are so inconsiderable that it may be presumed some difficulty would arise on this head. This is confirmed by the fact that in the grant of 1763 the point of land opposite Middle Island is called "Wind-mill Point." However an old deed shows that Richard Estey, jr., had on his lot No. 100 (opposite Middle Island) a mill built on what is called Numeheal creek, of which the first owners were Mr. Estey and his neighbor, Thomas Barker. This mill was sold in 1779 to James Woodman and was employed in sawing boards and other lumber for the Loyalists at St. John during the summer of 1783.

Not all of the grantees of the Township of Maugerville were actual settlers. Of several we know little more than the names. This is the case with James Chadwell, whose name appears first in the grant, and with Moses Davis, Thomas Rous, Jonathan Parker, Hugh Shirley, Nathaniel Newman and James Vibart.