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Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
October 12, 1893

GLIMPSES OF THE PAST

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

LXXXVI – THE PORT MATOON ASSOCIATION.

The garden lots in Morristown, (St. Stephen,) granted to ‘John Dunbar and associates,’ were 107 in number.  The fifty-four in the western division, called Marks division, excepting lot No. 42, (which was reserved, though the grant does not say for what purpose,) and the fifty-three in the eastern, or Jones division, were granted as follows:
 

Lot No. 54, granted to Capt. Marks, lay next the river, where is now the corner of King and Water streets.  The triangular block of land opposite, on which the C. P. R. station now stands, was reserved for a public landing.¹  Running northward from these, the other lots were numbered continuously, on each side of the road, the Temperance hall now being on No. 1, Marks division, and the Courier office on No. 1, Jones division.

Through a blunder, which led to much confusion later, the names of those who drew the lots from 1 to 53 on either side were transposed in writing the grant.

John Dunbar, who is named first on the grant, (by the double accident of his drawing No. 1 in the second division and this transposition of names,) is said to have been the first person to suffer capital punishment in the county.  He was a grantee of St. Andrews, as well as of Morristown, but it does not appear that he ever became a resident of either place.  The traditional account of his crime and punishment is as follows:-

He was living on Campobello, about the year 1798, and worked in a saw mill there.  His wife had a gold coin, of which he wanted to take possession in order to buy rum.  Upon her refusing to give it to him, he killed her.  He was arrested, taken to St. Andrews, tried, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.  Previous to the day fixed for his execution he escaped from jail and made his way to Bay Side, seven miles from the shire town, where he found employment with the son of Captain Bradford to work in the adjacent woods.  The captain was away from home at the time, but on his return, when he saw Dunbar, he recognized him as the escaped prisoner.  He communicated his discovery to Jailer Hitchings, who came out to Bay Side, arrested Dunbar and took him back to jail.  It was not long until, through the assistance of one Greenlow, a confined debtor, he again escaped and made his way to Boston.  A man named Bentley, a resident of St. Andrews, afterwards went to Boston, and one day, as he was passing a house on a street in that city, he was struck on the head by a shingle.  On looking up to see from whence the shingle came, he recognized the man engaged in shingling the roof to be Dunbar.  Bentley gave information which led to Dunbar being once more arrested.  He was in due time brought back to his old quarters in St. Andrews jail, and the next time he emerged from its precincts was on the march to the gallows on which he expiated his crime.²

A comparison of the two lists will show that fifty-six persons (or more, if we allow for the names apparently misspelled,) received grants of land both at St. Andrews and at Morristown.  Several of these, (Capt. Marks, Wm. Grant, John Frazer, Miles Post, Thos. Dodd, Thos. Grace and possibly others,) became permanent residents of St. Stephen.

¹The public landing was reduced to its present width by a grant to Aaron Upton in 1821.

²Mr. W. M. Magee, on the authority of the late Sheriff Paul.

Addition: Article LXXXVII contains the following addition to this one: "Mr. Marks remembers being told that John Dunbar lived here, in a log house, for a year or more, and that the inhabitants were very glad when he left."

Corrections: Article LXXXVII contains the following correction to this one: "The foot note stating that the public landing was reduced to its present width by a grant to Aaron Upton in 1821 is incorrect and should be erased.  In 1831, (May 26,) the land at the foot of King street, together with a strip one chain and ninety-five links in width lying between Upton’s wharf and the street and extending to low water mark, was granted to the justices of the peace in trust for a public landing, having before considered as crown property.  The triangular strip reserved in the original grant was included in this, and now forms part of the width of Water street between the C. P. R. station and the Commercial hotel. "

Article XCI contains the following correction to this one: "In the last paragraph, erase the name of John Frazer and the word ‘possibly.’"

See Article LXXXIX for more information on the blunder in the granting of the lots in Jones and Marks divisions.