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After James Simonds and James White had established themselves at Portland Point in April, 1764, they prosecuted the fisheries industriously and in the course of time erected a considerable number of weirs. For twenty years they remained in undisturbed possession; but shortly after the founding of Parr Town by the Loyalists the right of the old grantees to a monopoly of the fishing privileges along the Portland shore was called in question, the new comers claiming that in navigable waters the right of fishery was common to all.

There seems to have been from the very first a good deal of friction between the Loyalists and the old inhabitants of the country. The founders of the city of St. John had made great sacrifices for their king and country and they, perhaps not unnaturally, experienced a sense of irritation as they compared the meagre bounds of their city lots with the wide domains of Simonds, Hazen and White by which they were surrounded. At all events they were not disposed to concede any favors to these gentlemen as regards their right to a monopoly