Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/298
Mr. Blodget evidently did not come under the terms of the royal proclamation of October, 1763, whereby lands were to be granted to those who had served His Majesty in arms during the recent war in America; consequently Mr. Simonds was not able to extend to him any encouragement, and this disappointment was one of the causes of Mr. Blodget's early retirement from the co-partnership.
In the second business contract, made in April, 1767, between Hazen, Jarvis, Simonds and White, it was agreed that all the lands that had been or should be granted to any of the partners should go into the common stock and be divided, one half to Hazen and Jarvis, one third to Simonds and one sixth to White.
About the year 1765, the government of Nova Scotia began to make grants to disbanded officers of the army and navy, including officers who had served in the provincial corps of the old colonies, in a very rash and prodigal fashion. James Simonds was too keenly alive to his own and his partner's interests to allow so good an opportunity of participating in the general distribution to pass unimproved. Writing from " St. John's River," Dec. 16th, 1764, he says:—
"I have been trying: and have a great prospect of getting one or two Rights (or shares) for each of us concerned (in our Company), and to have my choice in the Townships of this River, the land and title as good as any in America, confirmed by the King in answer to our petition."
On the occasion of a trip to Halifax three months later, he wrote to Mr. Hazen:—
"I have seen Captain Glazier who informs me that he is getting a grant of a large tract of land at St. John's for a number of Officers and that your brother[1] is one of them.
The upshot of the enterprise was the procuring of a grant of the five townships of Conway, Gage, Burton, Sunbury and New Town, comprising in all more than
- ↑ Captain Moses Hazen.