Part 22 (1/2)
Yr. Humble Servant, Jas. Simonds.
To Mr. William Hazen, Merchant in Newbury.
The success of their first modest little venture encouraged Hazen and Simonds to undertake a more ambitious project, namely the formation of a trading company to ”enter upon and pursue with all speed and faithfulness the business of the cod fishery, seine fishery, fur trade, burning of lime and every other trading business that shall be thought advantageous to the company at Pa.s.samaquoddy, St. Johns, Canso and elsewhere in or near the province of Nova Scotia and parts adjacent.”
Evidently the project was regarded as in some measure an experiment, for the contract provided, ”the partners.h.i.+p shall continue certain for the s.p.a.ce of one year and for such longer time as all the partys shall hereafter agree.” Examination of the doc.u.ment shows that when first written the period the contract was to continue was left blank and the word ”one” inserted before ”year,” evidently after consultation on the part of those concerned.
Shortly before the formation of the trading company, James Simonds went to Halifax to procure a grant of land at St. John and a license to trade with the Indians, but did not at this time succeed in obtaining the grant. However the governor gave him the following license to occupy Portland Point:
”License is hereby granted to James Simonds to occupy a tract or point of land on the north side of St. John's River, opposite Fort Frederick, for carrying on a fishery and for burning lime-stone, the said tract or point of land containing by estimation ten acres.
[Signed] ”MONTAGU WILMOT.”
”Halifax, February 8, 1764.
Upon this land at Portland Point the buildings required for the business of the company were built. The partners.h.i.+p was in its way a ”family compact.” Samuel Blodget, was distantly related to Wm. Hazen and the latter was a cousin of James and Richard Simonds; Robert Peaslie's wife was Anna Hazen, sister of Wm. Hazen, and James White was a cousin of Wm. Hazen. It was agreed that Blodget, Hazen and James Simonds should each have one-fourth part in the business and profits, the remaining fourth part to be divided amongst the juniors, Messrs.
White, Peaslie and Richard Simonds.
Blodget and Hazen were the princ.i.p.al financial backers of the undertaking and agreed to provide, ”at the expense of the company,”
the vessels, boats, tackling, and also all sorts of goods and stock needed to carry on the trade, also to receive and dispose of the fish, furs and other produce of trade sent to them from Nova Scotia. The fishery and all other business at St. John and elsewhere in Nova Scotia was to be looked after by the others of the company, and the junior partners were to proceed with James Simonds to St. John and work under his direction, so far as to be ruled by him ”at all times and in all things which shall relate to the good of the concerned wherein the said White, Peaslie and R. Simonds shall differ in judgment from the said James Simonds, tho' all parties do hereby covenant in all things to consult and advise and act to the utmost of their power for the best good and advantage of the Company.”
It is evident that the plans of our first business concern at St. John were not drawn up without due consideration.
There is no evidence to show that any of the partners except the brothers Simonds had been at St. John previous to the year 1764. The statement has been frequently made that James White visited the harbor in 1762 in company with James Simonds and Capt. Francis Peabody, but his own papers which are still in existence clearly prove that he was almost constantly engaged in the employ of Samuel Blodget at Crown Point during that year.
William Hazen and James Simonds were undoubtedly the prime movers in the formation of the trading company that began its operations at St.
John in 1764. By their joint efforts they were able to organize a firm seemingly happily const.i.tuted and likely to work together harmoniously and successfully. As a matter of fact, however, the company had a very chequered career and at length the war of the Revolution seemed likely to involve them in financial ruin. This seeming calamity in the end proved to be the making of their fortunes by sending the Loyalists in thousands to our sh.o.r.es. But of all this more anon.
The financial backers of the company at the first were Hazen and Blodget, who carried on business at Newburyport and Boston respectively.
These towns were then rising into importance and were rivals in trade although it was not long until Boston forged ahead. The goods required for trade with the Indians and white inhabitants of the River St. John and the military garrison at Fort Frederick were conveniently supplied from Newburyport and Boston, and these places were good distributing centres for the fish, furs, lumber, lime and other products obtained at St. John. The furs were usually sold in London; the other articles were either sold in the local market or sent to the West Indies.
The Company having been formed and the contract signed on the 1st day of March, 1764, the Messrs. Simonds, James White, Jonathan Leavitt and a party of about thirty hands embarked on board a schooner belonging to the Company for the scene of operations. The men were fishermen, laborers, lime burners, with one or two coopers--a rough and ready lot, but with one or two of superior intelligence to act as foremen.
Comparatively few of the men seem to have become permanent settlers, yet as members of the little colony at Portland Point and almost the first English-speaking residents of St. John, outside of the Fort Frederick garrison, their names are worthy to be recorded. The following may be regarded as a complete list: James Simonds, James White, Jonathan Leavitt, Jonathan Simonds, Samuel Middleton, Peter Middleton, Edmund Black, Moses True, Reuben Stevens, John Stevens, John Boyd, Moses Kimball, Benjamin Dow, Thomas Jenkins, Batcheldor Ring, Rowley Andros, Edmund Butler, John Nason, Reuben Mace, Benjamin Wiggins, John Lovering, John Hookey, Rueben Sergeant, Benjamin Stanwood, Benjamin Winter, Anthony Dyer, Webster Emerson, George Carey, John Hunt, George Berry, Simeon Hillyard, Ebenezer Fowler, William Picket and Ezekiel Carr.
The Company's schooner, with William Story as master, sailed from Newburyport about the 10th of April, arriving at Pa.s.samaquody on the 14th, and at St. John on the 18th. The men set to work immediately on their arrival, and the quietude that had reigned beneath the shadow of Fort Howe hill was broken by the sound of the woodsman's axe and the carpenter's saw and hammer. Among the first buildings erected were a log store 20 feet by 30 feet, a dwelling house 19 feet by 35 feet, and a building adjoining it 16 by 40, rough boarded and used as a cooper's shop, kitchen and shelter for the workmen.
Portland Point lies at the foot of Portland street at the head of St.
John harbor--the locality is better known today as ”Rankin's Wharf.”
Before the wharves in the vicinity were built the Point was quite a conspicuous feature in the contour of the harbor. The site of the old French fort on which James Simonds' house was built, with the company's store hard by, is now a green mound unoccupied by any building. The place was at first commonly called ”Simonds' Point” but about the year 1776 the name of ”Portland Point” seems to have come into use. Nevertheless, down to the time of the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783, the members of the company always applied the names of ”St. Johns” or ”St. John's River” to the scene of their operations, and it may be said that in spite of the attempt of the French governor Villebon and his contemporaries to perpetuate the old Indian name of Menaquesk, or Menagoeche, and of Governor Parr in later years to affix the name of ”Parr-town” to that part of our city to the east of the harbor, the name given by de Monts and Champlain on the memorable 24 June, 1604, has persisted to the present day. The city of ST. JOHN, therefore, has not only the honor of being the oldest incorporated city in the British colonies, but traces the origin of its name to a known and fixed date three hundred years ago. Indeed as regards its name St. John is older than Boston, New York, Philadelphia or any city of importance on the Atlantic coast as far south as Florida.
However the first English colonists who established themselves on a permanent footing at ”St. John's” thought little of this historic fact. It was not sentiment but commercial enterprise than guided them.
Among those who came to St. John with Simonds and White in April, 1764, none was destined to play a more active and useful part than young Jonathan Leavitt. He was a native of New Hamps.h.i.+re and at the time of his arrival was in his eighteenth year. Young as he was he had some experience as a mariner, and from 1764 to 1774 was employed as master of one or other of the Company's vessels. He sailed chiefly between St. John and Newburyport, but occasionally made a voyage to the West Indies. He received the modest compensation of 4 per month for his services. In the course of time Mr. Leavitt came to be one of the most trusted navigators of the Bay of Fundy and probably none knew the harbor of St. John so well as he. In his testimony in a law suit, about the year 1792, he states that in early times the places of anchorage in the harbor were the flats on the west side between Fort Frederick and Sand Point, which were generally used by strangers, and Portland Point where the vessels of the Company lay. It was not until, 1783 that vessels began to anchor at the Upper Cove (now the Market Slip), that place being until then deemed rather unsafe. Jonathan Leavitt and has brother Daniel piloted to their landing places the transport s.h.i.+ps that carried some thousands of Loyalists to our sh.o.r.es during the year 1783.
Jonathan Leavitt gives an interesting synopsis of the business carried on at St. John under the direction of Simonds and White: ”The Company's business included Fishery, Fur trade, making Lime, building Vessels and sawing Lumber, and they employed a great number of laborers and workmen in cutting wood, burning lime, digging stone, cutting hoop-poles, clearing roads, clearing land, curing fish, cutting hay and attending stock. The workmen and laborers were supported and paid by the partners.h.i.+p and lived in the outhouse and kitchen of the house occupied by Simonds and White. There was a store of dry goods and provisions and articles for the Indian trade.”
When he was at St. John, Leavitt lived in the family of Simonds and White who lived together during the greater part of the ten years he was in the Company's employ, and when they separated their families he staid sometimes with one and sometimes with the other. Simonds and White were supplied with bread, meat and liquors for themselves and families from the store, and no account was kept whilst they lived together, but after they separated they were charged against each family; the (workmen also were maintained, supported and fed from the joint stock of the store, as it was considered they were employed for the joint benefit of the company, but liquors and articles supplied on account of their wages were charged against the individual accounts of the men. Part of the workmen and laborers were hired by William Hazen and sent from Newburyport, others were engaged by Simonds and White at the River St. John.