Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/308

years four shillings sterling, per annum, and after four years eight shillings sterling, per annum for ever.^[1] Some of Captain Spry's lands were escheated but in most cases regranted. He died in England about the year 1803 and letters of administration were taken out in this province by his daughter. He was a man of wealth and influence.

James Simonds acted as attorney and agent for General Spry after the return of the latter to England. He also acted in a like capacity tor Colonel Stephen Kemble in the management of his estate known as Kemble's Manor,^[2] comprising 20,000 acres at the head, of Long Reach.

The history of Portland Point is so interwoven with that of the other early settlements on the river that it is difficult to speak of one without in some measure considering the history of all, and this has been especially the case in the present paper. In our next we shall be able to confine our attention more closely to the story of Portland Point in pre-loyalist days; in this connection, however, a tew words may be said regarding some of the more prominent individuals with whom the settlers at the mouth of the river were brought in contact in the way of business or familiar intercourse.

Captain Walter Sterling, of the navy, was at St. John in August, 1775, and had some business transactions with Simonds and White, which are recorded in their old account books. He no doubt came for the purpose of examining and perhaps to arrange for the