Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/301
the Government are that three cattle be kept on every fifty acres of land granted."
In April, 1768, there was a meeting of the proprietors of the townships of Burton, Sunbury and New Town, held at New York for the purpose of a division of the lands, when the Rights (or shares) of Moses and William Hazen were allotted and drawn in New Town, and that of James Simonds in Sunbury. At this time the township of Conway, with all the islands in front of the townships, remained undivided. Evidently Mr. Simonds was quite satisfied with the result of the division, for he says in his letter to Hazen & Jarvis of June 22, 1768:—
"The Township of Sunbury is the best in the Patent and New Town is the next to it according to the quantity of land, it will have a good Salmon and Bass Fishery in the river[1] which the mills are to be built on, which runs through the centre of the tract. The mills are to be the property of the eight proprietors of the Township after seventeen years from this time, and all the Timber also the moment the partition deed is passed."
The lot drawn by James Simonds seems to have included a part at least of the old Ste. Anne's plain, now the site of the city of Fredericton. Benjamin Atherton settled here about the year 1769 in consequence of an agreement made with Mr. Simonds, and kept a store under the name of Atherton & Co., in which Hazen, Simonds and White seem to have had an interest. At the time of the coming of the Loyalists a committee appointed to examine into the condition of the townships and the titles under which the settlers held their lands, reported that "Benjamin Atherton had a good framed house and log barn and about 30 acres of land cleared partly by the French." James Simonds, a little later, exchanged his lot in the township of Sunbury for one in Burton. He also received
- ↑ The River was the Nashwaak and the site of the proposed mills was at the town of Marysville where Alex. Gibson's well known Mills and Cotton Factory now stand.