Glimpses of the Past Part 29

Two projects especially claimed Glasier's attention in the summer of 1766: The first the founding of a town, the second the building of his saw-mill. "I propose," he says, "to lay out the Town at Grimross in 80 squares, in addition to public squares; then they are to be numbered and drawn for by some person on the spot in the form of lottery tickets, which I shall have sent to the proprietors so that we may fix as many families as can be had this Summer on the Town lots. * * I must have young Mr. Morris from Halifax to survey and lay out the Town, as nothing can be done at Grimross before he arrives."

In connection with the erection of the Nashwaak mills Capt. Glasier acknowledges his obligation to Hazen & Jarvis of Newburyport. He says: "They have procured me men to build the mills and stores of all kinds for the workmen." The mill geer came this season, but on the 25th October Glasier writes, "The mills won't be finished this fall, it is such a work it was not possible to get through with it. * * * * My time has been divided between the Mills and the Surveying. I am condemned to tarry here this winter and can know nothing of what is doing in the world."

On the 2nd February following, he writes Mr. Nath'l Rogers of Boston, "We are now employed in getting logs to the mills. I hope we shall get them going early in the summer. They will begin to pay something of the expense before the fall. It's impossible for me to tell you in a letter the expenses of the different branches of business which I am obliged to carry on to complete the whole. It is not only building mills, surveying, etc., but clearing up the land, building houses, making roads, hiring oxen (for we have not half enough of them) and in fine so much I shall never pretend to write it. James Simonds, Esq., who is the Bearer of this, will be able to inform you much better than I can. * * * I am determined to finish what I have undertaken and then quit it. I am not in the best situation in the world, as I believe you'll think when I tell you I am not only shut out from all society and know nothing of what is carrying on in the world, but my stores are all expended, nor is there one thing to be bought here, pray send me last year's magazines and some English newspapers as well as the Boston ones. * * * I should be glad if you'd send the oxen, they may be not old nor of the largest kind but good to draw. I pay half a dollar a day for each yoak I hire so that they'll almost pay for themselves in one year in work. Those that we have here have worked more than one hundred days since I came, so that if we had been obliged to have hired them at the rate I pay others it would amount to a large sum. Twelve is the least that can be employed always at the mills hauling logs, as they will cut 8,000 feet a day, I am told, when they are finished. * * * * I told you I would not write you a long letter, as there is nothing I hate so much; it's the D----l to have ten thousand things to say."

Beamsley Glasier's connection with the St. John river was now drawing to a close. In the summer of 1767 he went to New York where we find him engaged, in company with the Rev. Dr. Ogilvie, in collecting the second annual subscription from the members of the society. The military gentlemen proved very dilatory in paying their subscriptions.

Whether Capt. Glazier became disheartened at the outlook, or whether he received peremptory orders to rejoin the Royal American Regiment is uncertain. But about the end of August, 1767, James Porteous, representing the Montreal committee, wrote to Nathaniel Rogers: "We are now informed Capt. Glazier is at New York on his way to join his Regiment, it therefore becomes necessary to appoint another person to transact the Society's business, for which purpose we have appointed Mr. James Simonds, one of the Proprietors, agent with whom you will please correspond on any occurrence regarding the settlement."

Messrs. Hazen & Jarvis, as well as their partners at St. John, manifested great interest in the attempts of the Society to settle their townships. Many details are mentioned in their letters, such as those contained in the following to James Simonds. These details may appear of little importance, yet everything that throws light upon the methods employed in peopling a new country ought to have an interest for after generations. In explanation of the subject matter of the letter below it should be mentioned that Philip John Livingston and others of the more energetic proprietors of the townships were sending settlers, from New York, and other places to the River St. John.

Newburyport, Octo. 8th, 1767.

"We wrote you last Sunday by a sloop that came in here from New York for some cattle, sheep and hogs. She took on board the cows; the hogs and sheep go by this vessel. There is ten families [of settlers], each of which was to have 1 cow, 1 sow, and 6 sheep, but as they thought it necessary to have one of the hogs a boar, and it was impossible to procure all the creatures of an equal goodness, we must beg you will a.s.sist them (if they need it) in the division of them. There was put on board this sloop 90 bushels of ears of corn, 60 of which is on the Company's account and 30 for these families' hogs, so that what may be more than 60 bushels upon their arrival with you, please to deliver with the hogs. The freight of these hogs and sheep we shall charge here.

Mr. White is arrived with our Wm. Hazen and writes you by this vessel. We suppose he will tell you that we think it will not be best to build a vessel with you this winter.

We have sent all we could procure of your memo. by this, vessel--the remainder will come by Mr. White who will sail the last of next week. You will observe there are seven hogsheads of rye and Indian corn wanting of the number in the invoices. These we took out to get ground and you shall have them when Mr. White goes.

Please to get as much lime as possible on board Capt. Newman, as we have agreed with him to land it in Portsmouth, you will therefore please to consign him to Mess. John & Temple Knight in that place.

There are 100 sheep on board the sloop which cost upon an average about 6s. 10d. a head. Now as the ten families who came from Now York were to have 60 ewe sheep (and as they chose a ram or two in the number) you will please to deliver them their number out of the old sheep which we shall charge at seven shillings per head.

There is a very likely ram on board (without horns) which we bought of Capt. White for the Company. This you will take care of.

Since writing the above we have been getting the sheep on board and find several very old, which please to take for the Company's use, and we will get an abatement made by the person whom we bought them of and who has deceived us in them.

Please to dispatch Newman as soon as possible as he has been detained here longer than he ought to have been. What will be wanting to fill up Newman besides the lime please to make up in lumber.

We would recommend it to you not to tarry till Mr. White's arrival with you before you go up the River.

Mr. Pickard and Mr. Hartt will give you an account of what freight they have on board which you will receive of them at the customary rate.

We are Sir, Your sincere Friends and devoted hum, Serv's.

HAZEN & JARVIS.

To Jas. Simonds, Esq'r.

Philip John Livingston, who has been mentioned as a promoter of the settlement of the townships, was a member of a distinguished and wealthy New York family. His mother was Catherine de Peyster and his wife a daughter of Samuel Bayard. His brother, John W. Livingston, and his wife's brother, Abraham de Peyster, were both captains in Col.

Edmund Fanning's King's American Regiment during the Revolutionary war. Philip John Livingston was himself high sheriff of Dutchess County, Now York, and during the Revolution held several important positions under British authority in the City of New York. His father, brothers and sons were all Loyalists.

About the close of the year 1767 Col. Glasier wrote from New York, seemingly in excellent spirits at the prospect of speedy settlement of the lands. "He informs us," writes Leonard Jarvis, "that one hundred families will go down next year to settle on the St. John river--that a vessel from Ireland will arrive there this fall--that Mr.

Livingston, a gentleman of fortune, has purchased three shares, and that the Patent is daily getting into fewer hands. This gives us encouragement to think that some time hence our interest in your River will be valuable."

Among the proprietors of the townships who labored to effect their settlement and improvement was Richard Shorne, a native of Ireland, with whom were a.s.sociated the Rev. Curryl Smith of Alminsta, West Meath, Ireland, and his sons John and Robert Smith of the city of Dublin. Mr. Shorne took up his residence at the River St. John in 1767 and lived there for several years. He was on July 8, 1768, returned a member of the Nova Scotia House of a.s.sembly for Sunbury county, his colleague being Phinehas Nevers of Maugerville. He seems to have made his headquarters at or near St. Anne's Point, where supplies were sent to him from Newburyport by Hazen & Jarvis.

Simonds & White informed their partners at Newburyport in a letter dated June 22, 1768, that they had been obliged to make considerable advances out of their stores to some settlers that Mr. Livingston had sent to the St. John river. Livingston it seems found fault with certain items charged to him in the accounts and this led to a rather indignant remonstrance on the part of Simonds & White. They wrote, "We are surprised that he should mention anything as to the sums not being due, when not only that but near as much more has been advanced to save the lives of the wretched crew he sent. We have ever found that the doing business for others is an office the most unthankful, and equally unprofitable." In the same letter mention is made of the arrival of Richard Shorne at St. John, with some families from New York, to settle his own and other lands for which he was agent. It appears that James Simonds introduced Richard Shorne to his friends at Newburyport for in one of his letters he writes: "Mr. Shorne, the bearer of this, is a Proprietor in our Lands and has left Ireland with an intention of settling a number of Rights on this river and for that purpose is invested with power from his friends to draw on them for any sum that may be necessary. I must beg your kind a.s.sistance and advice on his behalf as he does not appear to be much acquainted with the settlement of Lands."

Still another extract--this time from a letter of Philip J. Livingston to James Simonds, will throw additional light upon the story of the townships.

"New York, September 12, 1769.

Sir, * * *

I intreated the favour of you last year to procure two families for Sir Charles Dabers, who purchased the Right of James Allen, No. 18, in Sunbury Township, and desired Peter Carr might be fixed in that Township. If Sir Charles's families will accept of the same quant.i.ty of land as Captain Spry's and Mr. Morris's have done, I should be glad the lots were laid out in the same manner for them. I have only to add with respect to Sir Charles's two families that you will be pleased to furnish them with such provisions as may be necessary for their subsistence and draw for the amount. As to my families Hendrick and Baker, and West--who I am desired to attend to and who I am informed talk of prosecuting me--be pleased to furnish the ungrateful fellows, if they mend their manners, in such manner as best consists with strict frugality--for the large sums I have expended in the purchase of my several Rights and in prosecuting schemes of settlement (together with the sums I have been under the necessity of advancing to the Society, and still must advance to discharge a protested will of Glaziers, in this extreme scarcity of current specie) makes such an order prudential.

I hope you have taken the cattle from Brooks, or received the worth of them for me and be pleased to inform me particularly of the state of the families. You no doubt will hear from Halifax of our pet.i.tioning the Government to confirm our division of lands and therefore shall say nothing about it but refer you to Capt.

Spry and Mr. Morris.

As soon as the committee of Montreal will be pleased to furnish us with cash we shall write to you about finishing the Mills: till then nothing need be said about it. I should however be glad to know what sum you think would put the Mills in working order. I intend, and it is my fixed resolve to be on St. John's River as soon as the weather will permit in the Spring, which will be about the 1st of May. If Mr. Ogilvie should not send you an order to furnish James Marrington with provisions--who was to settle General Burton's Right--I think it advisable to take that family for Sir Charles Dabers, as General Burton is dead, and the family without credit can't subsist.

I am, Sir, Your Much Obliged And Very Humble Servant,

PHILIP J. LIVINGSTON.

We may be pretty certain,that the complaints of the settlers mentioned by Livingston were not entirely unreasonable. They had not antic.i.p.ated the hardships before them and were ill prepared to grapple with them.

Probably the attractions of the River St. John had been represented in an exaggerated form, a circ.u.mstance not unknown in the case of promoters of colonization of a more recent date than that we are at present considering.

Peter Carr and Thomas Masterson, two of Livingston's tenants, settled on the west side of the river opposite Musquash Island; both seem to have proved good settlers. John Hendrick, one of Livingston's "ungrateful fellows," was also a valuable settler; he was the father of five sons and Major Studholme commended him in 1783 as "a good subject, an old soldier and a very deserving man." Henry West, another of Livingston's settlers, is also commended by Major Studholme as an exceedingly good subject.

Notwithstanding the efforts of individuals, the progress made by the Saint John's River Society in the settling of their townships was unsatisfactory, and about this time Hazen & Jarvis expressed their conviction that half of the proprietors would not settle their lands at all; they therefore desired Simonds & White to take such measures as would secure their own Rights in Sunbury and New-Town as well as those of Moses Hazen and Governor Thomas Hutchinson--that of the latter having been lately purchased for Mr. Jarvis. Simonds & White seem to have agreed with their partners as to the improbability of settling the townships, for in July, 1770, they write: "The Society's Lands will be forfeited if not settled this year. We think it best to engage as many families, and fix them in Conway, as will secure our whole interest on the River, if they can be had." This advice was based on the opinion of the authorities at Halifax that settling the required number of families in one township would quite as effectively protect the interests of the grantees as if they were dispersed over the several tracts.

APPENDIX.

Halifax, 5th August, 1763.

Sir,--We beg leave to trouble you with a memorial of a number of officers and disbanded soldiers, who came from New England, and are settled on St. John's River. We were sent to them lately as a Committee of Council, by order of the Lieut.-Governor, to inform them that they could have no Grant of the Lands they were upon, and that they must remove therefrom, as these Lands were reserved by His Majesty for disbanded Troops. However, we are very apprehensive that their case must by some means or other have been misrepresented to the Lords of Trade, or not clearly understood.

They are chiefly American soldiers, officers or privates; they have sold their Farms in New England, and have transported themselves at their own expense; they have brought considerable stock with them, and their Families, and if it is the intention of the Ministry to settle disbanded Troops on that River, we are of Opinion these people will be of use and service, as it cannot be expected that English Soldiers can bring any great stock with them. The removing these people now they are settled, will be their utter ruin, the particular circ.u.mstances of which they have set forth in their Memorial to the Lords of Trade, which we beg the favor of you to present to them, and are with great Respect,

Sir, your most obedient and very Humble Servts.,

Chas. Morris, Henry Newton.

Joshua Mauger, Esqr.

MEMORIAL.

To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Lords of Commissioners of Trade and Plantations:

The Memorial of Francis Peabody, John Carlton, Jacob Barker, Nicholas West and Israel Perley, late officers in the American service and now Disbanded, In behalf of themselves and others disbanded from the said service and now settled at St. John's River in Nova Scotia, Humbly Sheweth:--

That your Memorialists, previous to their entering into his Majesty's Service, among other Encouragements were induced thereto by a Proclamation of his late Majesty promising that at the Expiration of the service they should be ent.i.tled to a Grant of Lands in any of his Majesty's colonies for them to Settle upon.

That they have many of them been in Service during this Present war, and as Americans are not int.i.tled to half pay, as his Majesty's British Troops are, and therefore expected no other Recompense than a Donation of Land agreeable to his late Majesty's Promise to them.

That having been sollicited to settle in Nova Scotia, by Colonel Mc.n.u.tt, who appeared to us to be authorized by your Lordships, having produced to us an Instrument Signed by your Lordships and under seal promising a Right of Land to each Settler equal to those already Granted to Horton, Cornwallis and Falmouth, we were induced to come into the colony of Nova Scotia, and accordingly sent a Committee of us to view Lands proper for a Settlement. That our Committee accordingly viewed several Tracts of Lands in Nova Scotia at our Expense and advised us to settle upon St. John's River about seventy miles from the Mouth in one of the Extreme parts and Frontiers of Nova Scotia, that we therefore applyed to the Governor and Council of Nova Scotia for a Grant of the Lands, not doubting of having the same confirmed to us, as they had Granted several Townships in this Province of Nova Scotia to other New England Proprietors who had not been in the Service. That the Governour and Councill of Nova Scotia gave your Memorialists encouragement, by telling your Memorialists that the Lands about St. John's River were reserved by your Lordships for disbanded Troops and that they would refer your Memorialists' Pet.i.tion to your Lordships.