Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/25
period a provision was inserted requiring the payment to the crown of "a free yearly quit rent of one shilling sterling for every 50 acres, the first payment to be made on Michaelmas day next after the expiration of ten years from the date of the grant." In order to prolong the period when the payment of quit rents would be necessary, many of the early settlers delayed taking out their grants. James Simonds tells, us that he deferred taking out his grant for this reason, thinking that with the exception of a fishing station, the lime quarries and the marsh, the lands in the vicinity of St. John were not even worth the quit rents. However, before long rival traders appeared upon the scene and the securing of his situation became an object of importance. An entry in the minutes of the Council of Nova Scotia records that on Aug. 9, 1763, license was given to John Anderson to occupy 50 acres of any lands unappropriated on the St. John river until further orders from government, and under date June 7, 1765 we have the following:—
Licence is hereby granted to John Anderson to Traffick with the Tribes of Indians on St. John's River and in the Bay of Fundy he conducting himself without Fraud or Violence and submitting himself to the observance of such regulations as may at any time hereafter be established for the better ordering of such commerce. This licence to continue during pleasure.
A similar license was granted the same year to Capt. Isaac Caton "to traffick with the Indians on Saint John's River and the Bay of Fundy." These licenses for trade with the Indians were issued in accordance with the proclamation of George III, given at the Court of St. James, October 7, 1763, as is shown by the following extract:—
And we do by the advice of our privy council declare and enjoin that the trade with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our subjects whatever, provided that every person who may incline to trade with the said Indians do take out a licence for carrying on such trade from the governor or commander in chief of any of our colonies where such person shall reside, and also give security to observe such regulations as we shall at any time think fit by ourselves, or commissioners to be appointed for this purpose, to direct or appoint for the benefit of the said trade.