Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/361
could obtain it at short notice by loading up his old musket and going to the woods. The purchase of 67 lbs. of moose meat at midsummer indicates that Mr. Hazen had to provide for a good sized family, and we learn from an enumeration of the settlers made this very year that his household included 4 men, 3 women, 3 boys and 2 girls, twelve persons in all. Probably his nephew, John Hazen, who afterwards settled at Oromocto, was one of the family.
William Hazen was decidedly unfortunate in regard to the first buildings he erected at St. John. Shortly after his arrival he built a barn near his house, and a few years later it shared the fate of his first dwelling house, only in this instance the fire was not accidental.
Rev. James Sayre,[1] under date November 25, 1784, wrote to James White from Fairfield, Connecticut:—
"It gave us great concern to be informed that any person about you could be so wicked as to accomplish the shocking deed attempted before we left the country ; I mean the burning of Mr. Hazen's barn. Besides the great loss he must have sustained it is justly to be feared it must have occasioned great terror and trouble to both your families. I should be glad to be informed that Mrs. White in particular did not suffer materially in her health (being an invalid) by the flagitious deed."
So much as regards the circumstances attending Mr. Hazen's removal from Newburyport to Portland Point. A few words may now be said respecting the ancestry of the Hazen family.
In the New England Historical and Genealogical Register of April, 1879, Mr. Allen Hazen of New Haven, Conn., says; "The origin of the family beyond
- ↑ Rev. James Sayre was a brother of Rev. John Sayre, who settled at Maugerville. In the Revolutionary war he was a chaplain in the New Jersey Volunteers, a well known Loyalist corps. He came to St. John at the peace in 1783 and drew a lot near York Point, but afterwards returned to Connecticut. His family lived on terms of friendly intercourse with James White's family and there are several pleasant allusions in Mr. Sayre's letter to their former intimate associations. He says, "We feel ourselves much indebted to your house for the frequent instances of kindness to us when in your neighborhood and wish to have it in our power to testify it more strongly than in words."