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St. Johns." He mentions in this letter that Capt. Beamsley Glazier was also at Halifax. This gentleman we shall presently have occasion to refer to more particularly. He and Mr. Simonds seem to have united in the endeavor to secure the speedy establishment of a new county on the River St. John. The success of their efforts is announced in Mr. Simonds' letter to Mr. Hazen, in which he writes, " St. Johns is made a county and I hope will soon make a formidable appearance." This announcement slightly anticipated the action of the Governor and Council, for it was not until about six weeks later, viz., on April 30, 1765, that the matter was carried into effect by the passing of the following resolution:—"Resolved, That St. Johns River should be erected into a County by the name of Sunbury, and likewise that Capt. Richard Smith should be appointed a Justice of the Peace for the County of Halifax."
The terms of this resolution are suggestive of the idea that, in the estimation of his Excellency and the Council of Nova Scotia, the appointment of a Halifax justice of the peace was about as important a matter as the organization of the county of Sunbury, albeit the latter comprehended a territory as large as the entire peninsula of Nova Scotia.
The late Thos. B. Akins, of Halifax, who was an extremely accurate and painstaking investigator and a recognized authority on all points of local history, in a letter[1] to the late J. W. Lawrence states that the election writs on file at Halifax show that Capt. Beamsley Glazier and Capt. Thomas Falconer were, in 1765, elected the first representatives of the County of Sunbury. It does not, however, appear that either of these gentlemen attended the sessions of the House of Assembly, and as it was the rule that members who
- ↑ This letter is in my possession.—W. O. R.