Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/307

Notwithstanding the extent and variety of their landed estate, Messrs. Hazen and Simonds had the assurance after the arrival of the Loyalists to memorialize the government for an additional 150,000 acres on the St. John, 5,000 to be close upon the town of Carleton. In transmitting their memorial to the home government, Governor Parr stated that he had refused to consider it, as the memorialists had already about 60,000 acres of land, and he deplored the evil effects of such extensive grants.

In the magnitude of their land speculations, however, the members of our old trading company had a formidable rival in Captain William Spry (afterwards Major General Spry). This gentleman was chief engineer of Nova Scotia, and some of the early defences of Halifax were erected under his supervision. He is known to have frequently visited the St. John river between 1768 and 1773, and in the summer of 1769 accompanied the Rev. Thomas Wood on a missionary tour in which they visited all the English settlements and proceeded up the river as far as the Indian village of Aukpaque.^[1]

Some of the leases issued by Captain Spry in early times are extant. One of these dated July 12, 1770, is the lease of a lot of 200 acres in Gagetown to Edward Coy. Captain Spry is described as of Titchfield in the county of Southampton, England. Among the conditions demanded of Mr. Coy were the payment of the King's quit rents, together with all such charges as province, county, town or parish taxes; also that Coy should "leave a row of trees on each side of the high road that may hereafter be laid out at the distance of about six rods from each other." The rent for the 200 acres demanded by Captain Spry, seems not extravagant to modern eyes, viz., after the expiration of two