Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
November 2, 1893
GLIMPSES OF THE PAST
Contributions to the History of Charlotte County and the Border Towns.
LXXXIX – THE PORT MATOON ASSOCIATION-Continued.
William Grant, afterwards Lieutenant William Grant,1 as quartermaster-sergeant in the 71st regiment of foot, and received his discharge in Brooklyn, L. I., in October, 1783. He was born at Kieth, Scotland, in 1759, and was therefore twenty-seven years old when he came to Schoodic. He had been educated for the ministry. He drew the farm lot now occupied by his grandson, Mr. John A. Grant, Old Ridge. In 1787 he received a commission as ensign in the militia; and was made lieutenant in 1795. He married Catherine, a daughter of William Patton, who lived on the adjoining farm, and who is supposed to have been also an officer of the 71st. Lieut. Grant died in 1831, and was buried in the old churchyard on King street.
Thomas Mitchell, whose farm was a little farther out, was also a son-in-law of William Patton. He was noted in his day as a skilful penman.2 It was he who gave the land on which St. Thomas’ church is built.
The William Calendar of the grant was probably William Kennedy, better known as Captain Kennedy, who as a schoolmaster for many years left his mark upon the rising generation in the new settlement. He was a small man, who spoke English with a broad Scotch accent; and those who were his pupils eighty years ago remember him as ‘very cross,’ and were glad when ‘training days’ called him away to his militia duties.
(It is a mistake to suppose that the early schoolmasters were, as a rule, deficient in education and refinement. Schoolrooms were rough, and books were few; but the teachers, who from these circumstances had a more direct personal influence upon their pupils, were usually men well worthy of their calling. One result of their work, very evident to a sensitive ear, is that most of the old people we meet to-day, children and grandchildren of the Loyalists, speak in a pleasanter tone and with more careful and correct pronunciation than the average of their descendants of a later generation-a matter which was more largely the result of schoolroom influence in those days than at present.)
1Not the same as Lieutenant William Grant of St. George. See article lxxv.
2Among other relics of the Loyalists, Mr. J. A. Grant has the Lord’s prayer written by Thomas Mitchell in a circle the size of a shilling piece.
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.
The last two articles should have been numbered lxxxvii and lxxxviii respectively. In reference to the latter, Mr. Marks assures us that it is an injustice to Mrs. Dodd to speak of her as ‘rough in manner,’ for she was much less so than might have been expected.
Article lxxxvi.-To those who have a fondness for disentangling snarls, we cheerfully recommend an investigation of the original ownership of the garden lots to decide whether any or all of those drawn on the right were granted on the left, and vice versa. We present material enough for a commencement of the investigation.
An old MS. list without date, belonging to Mr. Marks, gives the names as they stand in the grant, with a note below those of William George and William Frazer, (No. 26 in each division,) to the effect that each had been put in possession of the other’s lot by mistake; and it might therefore be inferred that this was the only exchange. Might they not afterwards, have found themselves the only ones (except Captain Marks,) settled in accordance with the wording of their grant?
A few extracts from deeds shall be put in evidence:-
(a) Deed from Noah Brown to Captain Marks, 1788, ‘No. 53 on the left, drawn by me as a Loyalist.’ The grant gives Brown No. 53 in Jones division, which was undoubtedly on the right.
(b) Thomas Bennet to Captain Marks, 1789, ‘No. 7 on the left….in Marks devisition.’ The grant gives Bennet No. 7, Jones division.
(c) Thomas Grimmer to Duncan McColl, 1797, ‘No. 10….in Marks division on the west side of the Street or Road leading from the River Scoodiac through Morris-Town back into the country, which Lot was granted to me by the Governor of Nova Scotia in a General Grant to Nehemiah Marks, Esqr., and others dated at Halifax the sixteenth day of September one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four and registered at Parr Town the eleventh day of April one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five.’ His lot in the grant is No. 10, Jones division.
(d) Betsy Marks, (widow of Captain Marks,) to Samuel Dodge, 1806, ‘No. 4 in Class Letter A, in Marks’s Division in the grant to John Dunbar and others, which said lot was heretofore given and granted to James Ferring.’ The grant given James Farren No. 4 in Jones division.
(e) Captain Marks to John N. M. Brewer, 1796, ‘No. 2 in Jones Division on the right, being the same lot which was given and granted….unto James Wall.’ The grant gives Wall No. 2 in Marks division.
(f) John McRa to William McLennan, (or McLellan,) 1793, ‘No. 6 in Marks’s Division.’ In this case the name has been made to agree with the grant by an alteration. The deed was apparently made to extinguish McRa’s supposed claim to the lot on the left which McLellan had already sold to the Methodists as a site for their place of worship.
(g) William Kennedy to Duncan McColl, 1802, ‘No. 9 on the left, Marks’s Devision.’ The grant gives No. 9 in the same division to a William Calender, (doubtless meant for William Kennedy.) This deed seems merely to convey a claim to a lot of which Mr. McColl was already in possession, and which, if the theory of the transposition of the names is correct, had been drawn by Benjamin Burgess. It is said that the heirs of Captain Burgess demanded payment for the lot, and that Mr. McColl refused to acknowledge their claim.
(h) Robert Watson to Duncan McColl, 1796, ‘No. 8 on the left in Marks’s division….originally granted unto William Dixon deceased.’ The grant gives Dixon No. 8 in Jones division, (where Mr. F. M. Murchie’s house and store now stand.) Wanting the lot on the left, and apparently supposing that he had bought it from the wrong man, Mr. McColl seems to have tried to correct the error by an exchange in the following year.
(i) William Grant to Duncan McColl, 1796, ‘No. 8 on the left, Marks Division.’ This agrees with the grant.
Mr. Marks has the first of the deeds above quoted; Mr. Arthur M. Hill the others. Where we have put the word ‘Marks’ in italics, it has been either written over an erasure or inserted later in a different hand; but the words ‘right’ and ‘left’ have not been altered. In the above cases, it is only where Mr. McColl was directly or indirectly concerned that the deeds were made to conform to the wording of the grant.
Two other deeds in Mr. Marks’s possession show that the wording of the grant did not agree with the plan which accompanied it. Dennis Post (No. 5 Marks division on the grant,) sells to Capt. Marks ‘Lot No. 5 as marked in the General Plan of the Town in Jones’s Division;’ and Kenneth McRa sells No. 19 on the left as mark’d in the general Plan of the Town, Marks Divition,’ though the grant puts his name in the other division.
But the most satisfactory document is the deed to Capt. Marks of a right of way for a proposed public street, (Water street,) made when he sold to Robert Watson, in 1792, the part of lot No. 54 on which the Watson block now stands. In it lot No. 54 is described as bounded on one side by ‘Lot number One in Marks’s Division, in possession of John Corvan.’ Corvan’s name is in Jones division on the grant.
Article CIII contains the following correction to this one: "In the paragraph relating to Thomas Mitchell, erase the last sentence, and insert, ‘He was born at Amsterdam, Holland. His son, Capt. Thomas Mitchell, gave the land on which St. Thomas’ church is built.’"
Article CIX contains the following addition to this one: "In the journals of the house of Assembly for 1824 is found the following: ‘Whereas William Kennedy of St. Stephen in the County of Charlotte served his country faithfully during the whole of the Revolutionary War and upwards of thirty-five years in the Charlotte County Militia; and whereas the said Wm. Kennedy is not able to earn his livelihood by reason of having lost the use of his right hand and being aged and infirm. Be it therefore resolved that there be granted to him the said Wm. Kennedy the sum of £25 to assist him in the support of himself and family.’ This grant was renewed annually for several years."