Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/220

joined one of the Provincial regiments when a young man, and in 1757 or 1758, went with his cousin, Capt. John Hazen, to take part in the attack on Fort Ticonderoga. After the death of his father and the settlement of his estate, the means at the disposal of James Simonds were inconsiderable, and he accordingly was induced by the proclamations published by Governor Lawrence about this time, offering special inducements to the New Englanders to become settlers in Nova Scotia, to visit the Bay of Fundy, and after a pretty thorough exploration of its shores, to take up his residence at St. John. At the time of his father's death, James Simonds was appointed guardian of his brother Richard and sister Sarah, both of them being minors, and they seem to have accompanied him to St. John. Richard Simonds died at St. John, January 20, 1765, but Sarah Simonds was living there in February 1770, as is evident from an entry in one of the old account books in the hand writing of James White, in which sundry dress goods are charged to James Simonds and marked, "D'ld his sister Sally."^[1]

The story of the organizing of St. John's first trading company in 1764, has been already related in this series of papers. The leading spirits of the company were William Hazen, James Simonds and James White. Mr. Hazen did not, it is true, take up his residence at Portland Point until the year 1775, and therefore he has as yet been only mentioned incidentally; he was, however, from the first a very active and important member of the company and its chief financial backer; more will be said of him hereafter.

The same spirit of enterprise that characterizes St. John today was conspicuous in those who first