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Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
June 8, 1893

GLIMPSES OF THE PAST

Contributions to the History of Charlotte County and the Border Towns.

LXX – THE NEW INHABITANTS AT PASSAMAQUODDY.

With the notable exceptions of James Boyd, who seems to have left soon after the beginning of the war, and Capt. Preble, who was actively engaged in hostilities under Allan, the old inhabitants of Passamaquoddy, as before stated, were for the most part loyal.

Refugees from Machias and other places appear to have settled amongst them, from time to time, during the continuance of the war; and after the treaty of peace the rivers and harbors along the shores of the bay were soon fixed upon as desirable sites for Loyalist settlements.

An officer belonging to the British war ship Duc de Chartres writes from Nova Scotia, Oct. 12, 1783:

The Loyalists have made many new settlements in the Bay of Fundy; at Passamaquoddy is a settlement of Quakers.

In November or December of the same year, Col. Edward Winslow wrote to his friend Ward Chipman the letter from which we have before quoted:

About all the people who composed the garrisons at the Penobscot are now at Passamaquoddy.  The late American Fencibles, Dr. Paine and a large party are also there.  Samuel Bliss with another party-in short the number that have emigrated to that side of the Bay is astonishing.

The Quakers had settled at Beaver Harbor, and given to their settlement the name of Penn’s Field, since contracted to Pennfield; the Penobscot people were principally at St. Andrews and at L’Etang, (called on some of the old maps Etang or St. George’s River;) Dr. Paine was at L’Etete; Samuel Bliss probably at L’Etang; and the disbanded soldiers of the Fencibles at the lower falls of the Magaguadavic.

In the spring of the following year, a number of those who had passed the winter at Port Matoon, (Port Mouton, N. S.,) voted to come ‘to ’Quoddy, with Capt. Marks,’ and were settled where the town of St. Stephen now stands.  The company called the Cape Ann Association took up lands farther back.

Here, as in other parts of the province, there was delay in securing grants of land.  In Col. Morse’s report of 1784, he speaks of the evils arising from this delay; and laments that the new inhabitants had wasted their time and substance in building towns, when they should have been employed in cultivating their lands.

Capt. John Munro, whose interesting account of a tour on the St. John River in 1783 appears in the report on Canadian archives for 1891, closes his letter with similar words:-

It will be the ruin of the Refugees so many settling at Fort How and upon the coast . . . . they would have done better had they gone into the woods.

The difficulties which beset the governor of Nova Scotia at this time have been already noted.¹  He was besieged and harassed with applications for land, by the thousands of Loyalists in all parts of the province, by British army officers, government officials and speculators, and by the pre-loyalist settlers, who not unnaturally desired to secure certain advantages to themselves before extensive grants were made to others.

Gov. Parr, who had been a lieutenant-colonel in the 20th Foot, seems to have been disposed to oblige a brother officer with a grant when he could do so.  The first Passamaquoddy grant made by him appears to have been one of 700 acres to ‘Peter Clinch, Lieutenant and Adjutant of the Royal Fencible Americans.’  This grant, dated Feb. 20, 1784, conveyed lands adjoining the Mascareen grant, and extending from the falls the [sic] of Magaguadavic eastward to the head waters of L’Etang.

On the 29th of March was made the grant of land on the Digdeguash to John Curry, Joel Bonney, John Hanson and others, mentioned in a former article;² most of the grantees, if not all, being pre-loyalist settlers or loyal refugees who had arrived before the close of the war.

On the same day grants were made to ‘Capt. Philip Bailey and associates,’ on the Magaguadavic, and to ‘Dr. William Payne and 19 others,’ at L’Etete.  The first grant to the Penobscot Association was dated Aug. 3, 1784; and that to the Cape Ann Association, October 1, 1784.  The settlements made under these grants will be referred to later.

¹Article LXVII.

²Article LIII.

In addition to certain errors in recent articles which were obviously typographical, the following should be corrected:-
Article LIII.-Erase the last paragraph, the closing statement in which is incorrect.
Article LIV.-In the eighth line of the thirteenth paragraph for ‘worthy of power,’ read ‘worthy of honor.’
Article LIX.-In the paragraphs near the close, the name of the mover of the resolutions should be ‘Gouverneur Morris,’ not ‘Governor Morris.’
Article LXIV.-In the estimate of the number of Loyalists in the second fleet, for ‘1500’ read ‘2000.’
Article LXVII [sic - should be LXVIII].-In the sixth line of the footnote, for ‘perpetrated’ read ‘perpetuated.’