Part 42 (1/2)

The origin of the famous ”Wood-boats” of the St. John river is revealed in the correspondence of Hazen and White. Previous to the arrival of the Loyalists all the vessels used on the river were either small schooners and sloops or gondolos; but in November, 1783, Hazen and White determined to build two schooners or boats to bring wood to market to carry about eight cords. These little vessels they state were to be managed by two men and were not decked.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

PIONEERS ON THE ST. JOHN RIVER IN PRE-LOYALIST DAYS.

Considerable information has already been given in the preceding chapters of this history concerning the first English settlers on the River St. John, and the names of such men as Francis Peabody, Israel Perley, James Simonds, James White, William Hazen, Jonathan and Daniel Leavitt, Beamsley P. and Benjamin Glasier, Benjamin Atherton, William Davidson, Gilfred Studholme and others will be familiar to the majority of our readers. Some further information concerning the early settlers may prove of equal interest.

BECKWITH.

Nehemiah Beckwith was an active and well known man on the St. John river in his day and generation. He was a descendant of Mathew Beckwith, who came to America from Yorks.h.i.+re, England, in 1635. The branch of the family to which Nehemiah Beckwith belonged lived chiefly at Lyme in Connecticut. Two brothers, Samuel and John, emigrated from that place to Nova Scotia in 1760, in consequence of the inducements offered by Governor Lawrence to New Englanders to occupy the lands vacated by the Acadians. A fleet of 22 vessels from Connecticut, carrying a considerable colony, entered Minas Basin on the 4th day of June, and the settlers landed near the town plot of Cornwallis.

Nehemiah Beckwith was born at Lyme, February 29, 1756, and was the seventh, and youngest, child of Samuel Beckwith by his wife Miriam, who was a daughter of Capt. Reynold Marvin. At the time of his arrival in ”bluenose land” he was little more than four years old. The exact date of his arrival at Maugerville is uncertain, but it was probably not long before the 16th December, 1780, when--as we learn from old Sunbury County records--he purchased half of lot No. 78 in Upper Maugerville from Joseph Dunphy for 100. Nehemiah Beckwith is described in the deed of conveyance as ”late of Cornwallis but now of Maugerville, Trader.” Mr. Beckwith was quite an enterprising man in the early days of New Brunswick. He was the first to attempt the establishment of regular communication by water between St. John and Fredericton, and for that purpose built in August, 1784, a scow or tow-boat to ply between Parrtown and St. Anns. A little later he built at Mauger's (or Gilbert's) Island a s.h.i.+p called the Lord Sheffield, which he sold on the stocks in May, 1786, to Gen'l Benedict Arnold. In consequence of sharp practice on the part of Arnold he was financially ruined. However, in a few years he succeeded in extricating himself from his difficulties and again became an enterprising and useful citizen. At the first general election in this province Mr. Beckwith and James Simonds were candidates for the County of Sunbury, their opponents being Capt. Richard Vanderburg and William Hubbard. The election was conducted after the old fas.h.i.+oned style of open voting, and lasted several days, during which the poll was held in succession at the princ.i.p.al centres. After a sharp party contest between the old inhabitants and the loyalists, the former were outvoted and Simonds and Beckwith consequently defeated. This election helped to intensify the ill-will and jealousy already existing between the ”old” and ”new”

inhabitants. Mr. Beckwith married Miss Julia Le Brun and, after a time, made his residence at Fredericton, where he met his death by drowning in 1815. His son, the late Hon. John A. Beckwith, born in Fredericton, December 1st, 1800, filled many high offices. He was for a time mayor of Fredericton, chairman of the provincial Board of Agriculture, a director of the Quebec and New Brunswick railway and for many years agent of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company. His son Harry Beckwith was for several years mayor of Fredericton; another son, Charles W. was for years city clerk, and a third, Adolphus G., filled for some time the position of chief engineer of the provincial public works department. A daughter married James Hazen of Oromocto, Sunbury County, and is the mother of J.

Douglas Hazen, M. P. P.

QUINTON.

Hugh Quinton, who was one of the pioneers who came to St. John in 1762 with Captain Francis Peabody, was born in Ches.h.i.+re, New Hamps.h.i.+re, in 1741. Being of an adventurous spirit he served, while only a lad in his teens, in one of the provincial regiments at Crown Point in the French war. His wife, Elizabeth Christie of Londonderry, New Hamps.h.i.+re, was born in the same year as her husband. They were married at the age of twenty and came to St. John a year later. According to the late John Quinton (who was Hugh Quinton's grandson and derived much of his information directly from his grandmother's lips) Hugh and his wife Elizabeth arrived in St. John on the 28th August, 1762, and on their arrival found shelter at the Old Fort Frederick barracks in Carleton where, on the night of the day of their arrival, their first child James Quinton was born: to him therefore appertains the honor of being the first child of English speaking parents born at St. John.

Not long afterwards Hugh Quinton went up the river to Maugerville, of which towns.h.i.+p he was one of the first grantees. He is described in an old legal doc.u.ment as ”Inn-holder,” from which it is evident he furnished entertainment to travellers, or kept a ”tavern.” In those days the keeper of a tavern was usually quite an important personage.

Many of the first religious services at Maugerville were held at Hugh Quinton's house, as being centrally situated and more commodious than those of the majority of the settlers. He was himself a member of the Congregational Church. In 1774 he sold his lot of land opposite Middle Island, and removed to Manawagonish in the towns.h.i.+p of Conway where, as we learn from an enumeration of the settlers made 1st August, 1775, (yet preserved at Halifax) he lived with his family, comprising ten persons in all, in a small log house, his stock of domestic animals including 2 horses, 4 oxen and bulls, 5 cows, 6 young cattle, 13 sheep and 5 swine. In common with the majority of the settlers who came from New England, the sympathies of Hugh Quinton in the Revolutionary war were at first with the ”rebels.” He was one of the ”rebel committee,”

formed at Maugerville in May, 1776, and accompanied Colonel Jonathan Eddy in his quixotic expedition against Fort c.u.mberland. After this unlucky escapade Hugh Quinton thought better of his conduct, took the oath of allegiance and on several occasions turned out and fought the rebel parties. At the peace in 1783 he drew a lot in Parrtown, at the corner of Charlotte and Princess streets, (where the residence of the late Dr. John Berryman now stands), also one in Carleton. For many years he kept a well known house of entertainment at Manawagonish, Parish of Lancaster. He died in 1792, but his widow lived until the year 1835. He was the ancestor of all of the name who are now resident in the province.

JONES.

John Jones, the ancestor of the late Hon. Thomas R. Jones and many others of the name in the province, claims a little notice at our hands. His grandfather came to America from Wales about the year 1700, accompanied by his family. They landed at Newburyport, settling, a little later, at Amesbury. This immigrant ancestor met a tragic death at the hands of the Indians. John Jones, who came to St. John, was the youngest of his father's children. He learned the s.h.i.+p-carpenter's trade, and came to St. John with William Hazen in 1775 as a master workman to build s.h.i.+ps for the firm of Hazen, Simonds and White. The first vessel he was employed in constructing was on the stocks and partly planked when she was burned by a party of marauders from Machias. Mr. Jones' employers paid him his daily wages for some time, in order to retain his services, under the impression that the Revolutionary war would soon be ended and they would be able to resume the business of s.h.i.+p-building. During this waiting period Jones was not entirely idle--at least he found time to marry a New England girl, Mercy Hilderick by name, who was visiting at the home of her brother-in-law Samuel Peabody. The marriage ceremony was performed by Gervas Say, Esquire, a neighboring justice of the peace. The ravages of the Yankee privateers that infested the sh.o.r.es of the Bay of Fundy obliged Mr. Jones and nearly all his neighbors of the Towns.h.i.+p of Conway to move up the river. But previous to their departure there occurred John Allan's famous invasion of the St. John. Allan left a guard of sixty men at the mouth of the river to oppose the landing of the troops under Major Studholme and Col. Francklin. The British landed eventually at Manawagonish Cove near the house of Samuel Peabody and were guided by Messrs. Jones, Peabody and others through the woods to the place where the enemy were encamped on the west side of the river near the falls. The Americans were apprised of their coming and had ambushed themselves--some of them climbing into trees.

Major Studholme sent out flanking parties, which fired upon the enemy from either side, killing eight of their number, who were buried in one grave near the spot where they fell; the rest fled terror stricken with all possible speed to Machias. John Jones at first went up the river to Jemseg Point, which was then covered with white oak trees.

Later he became acquainted with Edmund Price and, concluding to become his neighbor, removed to the head of Long Reach and settled at the place called ”Coy's Mistake” on Kemble Manor, where he had a property of 400 acres of land. It would be quite impossible in this chapter to follow the various ramifications of the Jones family, for John Jones had a family of eight sons and seven daughters, fourteen of whom married and reared large families. One of the sons, Samuel, born while the family were at Manawagonish, in the first years of the last century had the responsible duty of carrying his Majesty's weekly mail from St. John to Fredericton. There was, by the way, a curious circ.u.mstance connected with this mail, namely, that letters from Halifax to St. John were first carried to Fredericton, as the headquarters of the province, and then returned to St. John. This involved a delay of about a week in delivery. Naturally the beauties of such a system did not strike the citizens of the commercial metropolis at all favorably, and the consequence was a vigorous ”kick”

on the part of the citizens of St. John that led ere long to a change for the better. The house of John Jones, at the head of Long Reach, was a favorite stopping place for travellers in early times, and the reputation of the family for hospitality was proverbial. The loyalist settlers at Kingston during the summer of 1783 met with much kindness from the Jones family while they were living in their canvas tents and busily engaged in the construction of log houses and in making preparations for the ensuing winter.

BURPEE.

The first of the Burpee family in America appears to have been Thomas Burpee, who settled at Rowley in the County of Ess.e.x, Ma.s.sachusetts.

This town lies near the north-east corner of the ”Old Bay State.” It was settled about 1639, and Thomas Burpee bought a lot there immediately after the first settlement was made. It was from this town and its vicinity that many of the first settlers of the towns.h.i.+p of Maugerville came in 1762-3. Included in the number were the Burpees, Barkers, Perleys, Jewetts, Palmers and others whose decendants are quite numerous in the province today. Rowley was a stronghold of New England puritanism and, if we are to credit the testimony of the Rev'd. Jacob Bailey, who was born there in 1731 and was a contemporary of Jonathan Burpee and of Jacob Barker, the citizens of Rowley were not remarkable for their enterprise. Mr. Bailey writes that in his day ”every man planted as many acres of Indian corn, and sowed the same number with rye; he ploughed with as many oxen, hoed it as often, and gathered in his crop on the same day with his grandfather; he salted down the same quant.i.ty of beef and pork, wore the same kind of stockings, and at table sat and said grace with his wife and children around him, just as his predecessors had done before him.” ”An uniform method of thinking and acting prevailed, and nothing could be more criminal than for one person to be more learned, religious, or polite than another.”[123]

[123] Many facts of interest concerning the early days of Rowley are to be found in the History of Rowley by Thomas Gage, printed in 1840. It contains a genealogical register of the families of some of the first settlers of the town.

Doubtless the emigration of the men of Ma.s.sachusetts, who settled on the River St. John, deprived New England of some of the more enterprising of its people. An indication of the Puritan ancestry of these immigrants who settled on the St. John river is furnished by the Biblical names of a very large majority of the original grantees of Maugerville.[124] Among these names we find the following:--Enoch, Moses, Joshua, Elisha, Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Nehemiah, Jedediah, Isaac, Israel, Jacob, Joseph, Benjamin, Zebulun, David, Jonathan, Phinehas, Jabez, Nathaniel, Asa, Ammi, Thomas, Matthew, Stephen, Peter, James and John.

[124] See names of grantees at page 159 of this history.

In the town and parish records of Rowley the name of Thomas Burpee frequently appears--the surname usually in the form of Burkby or Burkbee. The name of Jonathan Burpee (who was probably a great grandson of the first ancestor in America) appears in the list of the first grantees at Maugerville. He was a deacon of the Congregational Church and his name is first in order among the signers of the Church covenant agreed to at Maugerville shortly after the settlement was founded. He was the head of nearly all Church movements up to the time of his death in June, 1781. The papers connected with the administration of his estate are still in existence, and much of the information contained in Dr. Hannay's valuable sketch of the Towns.h.i.+p of Maugerville is based upon them. His estate was appraised by Jacob Barker and Daniel Jewett, two of his old neighbors and life-long friends, and was valued at 525. He was considered, in his day, one of the well-to-do farmers of the towns.h.i.+p.

The simplicity of life which prevailed in this country in the year 1781, is shown by the fact that Jonathan Burpee had no carriage or wagon of any kind and no sleigh--probably the roads were too bad to admit of the use of wheeled vehicles. The deacon, however, had a saddle for himself and a pillion for his wife and daughters. Household furniture was indeed meagre, for that of Deacon Burpee was valued at only 5. 7. 8. But his three good feather beds with pillows, coverlets and bankets were valued at 16. 11. 3.