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connection with the early masting business of the St. John river. Mr. Davidson came from the north of Scotland to Miramichi in 1764, the same year that Simonds and White took up their permanent abode at St. John. At that time the abandoned houses of the French at Miramichi had been destroyed by the savages, and Mr. Davidson found himself almost the only white man in a vast and desolate region. In the following year a grant of 100,000 acres was made to Wm. Davidson and John Cort on the south side of the Miramichi. This grant began nearly opposite "Boebare's Island" and extended several miles up the river, including a large part of the parish of Nelson.^[1] Mr. Davidson prosecuted the fisheries in company with John Cort, and about the year 1773 built the first schooner launched upon the Miramichi. During the Revolution the Indians proved extremely troublesome to the Miramichi settlers, and Mr. Davidson removed temporarily to the St. John river, where he became interested in lands and had a contract with the government to provide masts for the Royal Navy. Cooney says in his History of New Brunswick, "Mr. Davidson is universally represented to have been a man of considerable attainments, of amiable disposition, of enlarged views and enterprising spirit." At the time of the division of the old province of Nova Scotia he was a member for Sunbury County in the N. S. House of Assembly, and he was elected a member for the County of Northumberland in the first House of Assembly of New Brunswick. William Davidson displayed indomitable energy and perseverance in surmounting difficulties. He died in 1790 and is interred in the old burial ground at Beaubair's Island. His tombstone bears the following inscription: