Item
The Loyalists
St. Andrews Beacon
Jan. 31, 1907
Early History of St. Andrews
The following extracts form part of a paper recently read before the Canadian Literature Club by M. N. Cockburn, K. C. on "The Early History of Saint Andrews"
Part One
Dr. Ganong, who has gone very exhaustively into the question how St. Andrews received its name says the tradition of an Indian in 1796 was that two or three hundred years before that time the French erected a cross upon St. Andrews Point on St Andrews Day, celebrated Mass there and gave it the name of "St. Andrews."
Another M. S. gives an Indian tradition that a cross was erected there by a French priest named St. André, and the town was named after that ancient Divine. The best informed persons on the subject now believe that the name dates back to the French period, and the first authentic record of which I have any knowledge, in which the name appears, is in the Owen Journal in 1770 when it is spoken of as St. Andrews Point, and was intended to apply particularly to that portion which we now call Indian Point.
Naturally our interest in St. Andrews begins with the time when our ancestors or the ancestors of those of us who are descendants from the Loyalists, first came here and formed a settlement, took up their abode and began the Herculean task of converting an unbroken wilderness into a civilized community and a centre of industry and prosperity; and from the fruits of those labors we, in this day and generation, are reaping so rich a harvest in the form of comfortable conditions, made so easily possible by the progress and advancement of civilization.
A writer of undoubted authority tells us that when Castine, which had been held through the closing years of the Revolution, was lost by the Peace, St. Andrews of Consquamcook Point was fixed upon by the Castine Loyalists as a suitable place for settlement. Two or three refugees had preceded them and built log houses not far from the site of the present town. At the time of the arrival of the Penobscot Loyalists the greater part of the present town site was probably an unbroken cedar swamp. Near where the present Record Office stands was, perhaps, the log hut erected by Brown and Frost about 1770. Although the Loyalists made their selection of what seemed to them to be safety and surety within the limits of the King's possessions, under the terms of the Treaty of Peace they were not for some time afterwards allowed to enjoy their possession undisturbed. The terms of the treaty seem to have been so framed as to leave doubt and uncertainty as to which river named in the treaty as the boundary line was the St. Croix. The government of the United States and the agents and representatives of that government stubbornly and persistently insisted that the Magaguadavic river was the true and ancient river St. Croix and therefore the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick intended in the treaty of 1783.
The conditions at St. Andrews in the early part of the first spring after the landing of the Loyalists, the nature of the country generally and the plans and intentions of the first settlers for future operations, are so well explained and shown in a letter written by William Pagan to Dr. William Paine and also published in the Winslow Papers, that I here reproduce it. The letter is dated at St. Andrews 2nd of May 1784, and reads:
"Dear Sir:
"I have just learned of your arrival at Harbor L'Etang, and am in great hopes that before you return to Halifax you will find time to pay our new settlement a visit. You will find us in a state of infancy, but when it is considered that there was not a single house erected till last October you will not think light of our exertions.
"We have now about ninety houses up and great preparations making in every quarter of the town for more. Numbers of inhabitants are daily arriving, and a great many others are hourly looked for from different quarters. Agents are now here from the neighboring states on a lookout for land from a number of valuable inhabitants who wish to emigrate here being tired of their new government.
"I have not been in your part of the Bay, but from information the lands are good. I early this spring made one of an exploring party. We went all around Oak Point Bay and up the Scuddock River as far as the Indian settlement a little above the falls. These are part of the land laid out for the Associated Loyalists from Penobscot, and I can with pleasure assure you that the land in general is very good, abounding with large quantities of hardwood, all kinds of pine timber of a large growth and very handy to the water, where most vessels can safely anchor. There are a number of falls of water where sawmills can be erected but only two of Scuddock yet up. The mill privileges on Oak Point Bay have been lately sold to defray the charges of the Town. The purchasers are making preparations to erect sawmills. The timber is very handy to the mills and no end to the quantity.
"There is a large growth of white pine fit for masts and spars of any dimensions. Apart from my own observation I . . . am fully convinced that the Grand Bay of Passamaquoddy alone can supply the whole British West India Islands with boards, planks, scantling, ranging timber, shingles, clapboards, and every species of lumber that can be shipped from any part of New England, oak staves excepted. Masts, spars and square timber suitable for the British market can be furnished to any extent from here and nothing prevents all these articles from being now furnished in the greatest abundance, of the best quality and on at least equal terms with any other part of the continent, but for the want of inhabitants and sawmills, in both which we have the most promising prospect of cutting a very respectable figure in the course of a few years.
"The easy navigation of this town exceeds any I have seen: no person of any observation will want a pilot after being once up, and we are accessible at all seasons of the year. The fishery in this bay, you are no doubt sufficiently informed as to the great extent it can be carried on.
"Excuse the liberty I have taken in giving my opinions of our settlement. I know you are interested in its prosperity and will be pleased with the accounts I have given, especially when I assure you that I am not governed by my own opinion alone but also by the opinion of every person who has taken any pains to explore this part of the country.
"Should your time not permit you to pay us a visit now, I am in hopes to have the pleasure of meeting you at St. John where I shall set out in a few days on my way to Halifax. I am, dear Sir, your most obedient servant,
Will. Pagan."
St. Andrews Beacon
"The Early History of St. Andrews"
Extract from a Paper by M. N. Cockburn, K. C.
Part Two
Feb. 14, 1907
Perhaps it was early in the year 1784 that Charles Morris, Jr., Deputy Surveyor, the same man who held the interview with Col. Allan, laid out the Town of St. Andrews in its regular and uniform plan - with six parallel streets running lengthwise and thirteen streets cutting them at right angles - in sixty blocks that are perfectly square lying between Water Street on the front and Prince of Wales Street in the rear, and between Harriet Street on the northwest and Patrick street on the south and east, and twelve water blocks lying below Water Street, made very irregular on the southwest side by the numerous curves and indentations of St. Andrews harbor, which is their common boundary line on that side. The ancient plan bears the same name, Charles Morris, and the date given is 1784. By this plan the Town is divided into three divisions, and each block is lettered and divided into eight lots. The first division was named "Bulkley's" and extended from Harriet Street to the northwesterly side of Edward Street. This division was named after Hon. Richard Bulkley, who accompanied Governor Cornwallis to Nova Scotia in 1749, became Secretary to the Province about 1759 and continued in office under the thirteen successive Governors or until 1793 when he retired in favor of his son. On the death of Governor Parr, in 1791, he was for a short time Administrator of the government of Nova Scotia. He died December 7th, 1800 at the age of 83 years. At the time of his death he was judge of the Admiralty, Grand Master of the Free Masons and Brigadier General of Militia - a rank never since conferred on any militia officer in Nova Scotia.
The second division was named "Parr's Division" after the Honorable John Parr, Captain General, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over His Majesty's province of Nova Scotia at that time and down to 1791. The division embraced that portion of the Town from the southeasterly sideline of Edward Street to the northwesterly sideline of Princess Royal Street.
The third division extended from Princess Royal Street to Patrick Street and was named "Morris' division" for the Hon. Charles Morris, father of the Charles Morris who laid out the town. The Hon. Charles Morris was Surveyor General in Nova Scotia in 1794. He was at one time a representative of the old county of Sunbury in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. His father was also named Charles Morris and was the first Surveyor General of Nova Scotia.
According to plans so prepared by Mr. Morris, and following his descriptions by Divisions, Blocks and Lots, the town of St. Andrews was on the 15th day of August 1784 granted to William Gammon and 429 others.
It is quite evident that the Loyalists who settled St. Andrews did not have much faith in the sincerity of the United States government in the contention that the Magaguadavic river was the ancient St. Croix and that St. Andrews was a part of the United States. For, in spite of the fact that the dispute over that point was not settled before the latter part of the year 1798 or early 1799, they went vigorously along in building up and improving the town and adding to their property and possessions. The best authority I have yet been able to find on that point is in Dr. Raymond's "Winslow Papers." There, on pages 353 and 354, is published an old manuscript dated 1788, entitled "Progress of New Brunswick," but without anything in the original manuscript to indicate the author of the sketch.
One paragraph in that valuable document states: "This province has become of so much consequence to Great Britain and increasing daily in its magnitude that no time ought to be lost in establishing the boundary laid between it and the United States of America. The Americans claim the town of St. Andrews, built since the Peace by the Loyalists, consisting of six hundred houses, together with many valuable islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, which by the express word of the treaty are clearly within the limits of New Brunswick. The inhabitants of St. Andrews and its vicinity amount to upwards of three thousand. If these Loyalists should fall with their properties within the limits of the United States of America it is necessary that they should know it before any further improvements are made by them as I believe not one of the families would remain subject to the States, being perfectly happy under the government of Great Britain.
"It is the more necessary that this inquiry be immediately made while the Indians are alive that have been called up to Boston to give their evidence which is to remain on the records there, which river was anciently called St. Croix. They have declared upon their return that they were bribed to say the easternmost river. And it is the more necessary while the old English and French inhabitants who have resided there upwards of forty years, can personally attend and give their evidence to the contrary. I have later been there and have examined the rivers, islands, etc., and conversed with the old inhabitants and Indians; there can remain no doubt but the boundary line we claim is just and agreeable to the Treaty."
It would be an injustice to departed and deserving worth to conclude a paper of this character without some special reference to at least a few of the first settlers in St. Andrews who made themselves useful and conspicuous by their public spirit and zeal for all that makes for the good and welfare of a community in which they had cast their lot, under conditions particularly hard and trying.
John Curry, who was created Senior Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Charlotte, was also one of the original grantees of the Town Plat, and died here. His son, Cadwallader Curry, was for some years a merchant at Campobello. The name "Cadwallader," so common among the male inhabitants of that Island at the present time, comes down from that gentleman.
Robert Pagan was a native of Glasgow, Scotland, where he was born in 1750. He emigrated to America early in life and established himself as a merchant of Falmouth, Maine, now Portland. In 1774 he was a member of the committee to ascertain the names of the holders of tea in Boston and the quality and quantity of that article. A year later he became involved in the controversies of the time and abandoned his business and the country soon after the burning of Falmouth by Mowat. He settled in St. Andrews in 1784. Served the Crown as agent for lands in New Brunswick and in superintending affairs connected with grants to the Loyalists, represented the County of Charlotte for a number of years in the Provincial Legislature.
William Gallop was a leading man among the St. Andrews Loyalists. Was the first Registrar of Deeds for Charlotte County and was appointed by his Excellency, Thomas Carleton, Captain General and Governor in Chief of New Brunswick. His commission was dated March 3rd, 1786, and was signed by Jonathan Odell, Secretary. From June 25th, 1785 to April 3rd, 1876, Joseph Garnett performed those duties as Deputy to Edward Winslow, who seems to have been the Registrar General for the Province. He continued in that office until 1789. In company with Colin Campbell and Thomas Wyer, he owned the Oak Point Bay mill at the mouth of that stream at the head of Oak Bay, near the creamery building over which we cross in driving to St. Stephen which stream is still called the "Gallop Stream," after this William Gallop. He also received a grant of land at Chamcook, where it is believed he also owned a mill.
Thomas Wyer, another prominent Loyalist, and original grantee of the Town Plat, married a daughter of Capt. Jeremiah Pote. He had been Customs Officer at Falmouth. He became the first Sheriff of Charlotte County from 1784 to 1790 and was largely interested in lumbering. He died in 1824 in the eightieth year of his age. His remains are in the old churchyard, at the head of King Street. His descendants have always been and still are among the most prominent and respected citizens of St. Andrews.
John Dunn came from New York. He owned and occupied the building now owned by Mr. W. J. McQuoid on the corner of Water and Edward streets, the frame and material for which he brought with him from New York in 1784. It was the first two-story building ever erected in St. Andrews. He was the second person to hold the office of Sheriff in Charlotte County, his term of office extending from 1790 to 1803. He was for many years Comptroller of Customs at St. Andrews. He died in 1829 and a large stone tablet marks his last resting place in the old burial ground. In 1825 he presented the Roman Catholic Church with that piece of ground on which their church formerly stood [moved to King and Church Street in 1903 as the stage for the new Andraeleo Hall] and where their old burial ground still is, facing on Mary Street and running back from Montague to Parr Street. The present Collector of Customs, Mr. William Whitlock, is a direct descendant of Mr. Dunn.
St. Andrews Beacon
Early History of St. Andrews
Extract from Paper by M. N. Cockburn, K.C.
Part Three
Feb. 21, 1907
The third person to fill the honorable and responsible office of Sheriff in this County was Elisha Shelton Andrews. Though not a Loyalist he was the son of a Loyalist, the Rev. Samuel Andrews, first Rector of the Episcopal Church in St. Andrews. His appointment to office was dated April 16th, 1805, and he continued in office until his death on July 26th, 1833, in the sixty-first year of his age. Sheriff Andrews' wife was a daughter of the Rev. Richard S. Clarke, who was the first Rector in the parish of St. Stephen.
The fourth incumbent in the officer of Sheriff was also the son of a Loyalist, Colin Campbell, Jr. He filled the office from 1833 to 1843. He was born in Glasgow, married a daughter of Capt. James Campbell, who was a cousin to Sir Archibald Campbell, a successor to Sir Howard Douglass as Governor of New Brunswick. He was a son of Capt. Colin Campbell, who came from Scotland during the war and was for a time a Customs officer at St. John, and was one of the representatives of the County of Charlotte in the first House of Assembly. Did business as a merchant for a time in St. Andrews and finally returned to Scotland in 1808. His eldest son, Rear Admiral Donald Campbell, of the British Navy, married a sister of Sir Howard Douglass, and his grandson, Admiral York Campbell, is at present the head of the younger branch of the Campbells of Argyle. Miss Annie P. Campbell, of St. Andrews, is a direct descendant of Sheriff Campbell.
Thomas Jones (formerly Capt. of H. M. 74th Regiment)succeeded Colin Campbell, Jr. as Sheriff of Charlotte from 1843 to the time of his death in 1865. His death occurred at Naples, as the result of an accident. A white stone in the old burial ground marks his grave and the splendid fence recently erected around the lot from the proceeds of a legacy left by his son, Mr. Owen Jones of London, for that purpose, will serve to perpetuate his memory.
Alexander T. Paul followed Sheriff Jones in that office from 1865 to March 1883 at the time of his death.
The present incumbent, Robert A. Stuart, is Sheriff Paul's successor.
Joseph Garnett was one of the Loyalists who came to St Andrews with the Rev. Samuel Andrews in 1784 and was one of the first church wardens and first vestry clerk in St. Andrews church. He was New Brunswick's first Master in Chancery and the first Deputy Registrar of Deeds and Wills, and Deputy Surrogate or Judge of Probate for Charlotte County. He died in St. Andrews in 1800. Up to that time there had been no separate record of the proceedings in the Surrogate or Probate court and the only proof to be found that the Probate court had an existence at that time is the proof and registration of certain wills between 1784 and 1800. In the year 1800, after Joseph Garnett's death, Henry Barlow Brown was appointed Deputy Surrogate under Edward Winslow, and Donald McDonald was appointed Deputy Registrar of Wills, Probate of Wills, Letters, of Administration and other testamentary documents. Joseph Garnett died intestate, and the Probate court records begin on Dec. 20th, 1800, with the grant of letters of administration in his estate to his widow, Rebecca Garnett. The second case of administration was on the estate of Nehemiah Marks of Saint Andrews. Betty Marks, his widow and Ninian Lindsay of St. Andrews, were appointed administratrix and administrator April 18, 1801. The first will with letters testamentary registered in the Probate Court was that of Rebecca Phillips. It was dated Dec. 28th, 1806, and admitted to probate on March 20th, 1801. Mariner Solt was the executor and Samuel Andrews, John Mowat and Rachel Mowat were the subscribing witnesses. Henry Barlow Brown continued in office as Deputy Surrogate until the end of the year 1808 and was succeeded by Harris Hatch, who acted as deputy Surrogate until June 27th, 1822.
The constitution of the court was then altered, and Mr. Hatch was appointed Judge of Probate. He was succeeded by George I. Thomson, who was succeeded by James W. Chandler; he by George D. Street; Mr. Street by Benjamin R. Stevenson, and Mr. Stevenson by the present incumbent.
Jeremiah Pote was a merchant of Falmouth, Maine, transacted a large business and filled offices of trust and honor. In 1774 a public meeting was called to consider the state of public affairs, which he attended, but he desired that his dissent might be entered against a resolution relative to the Ministry and East India Company, which was introduced and passed. In 1775 he rendered himself obnoxious during the troubles with Mowat, which resulted in the burning of the town. He was summoned before the Whigs who, under one Thompson, assumed the Government and organized themselves into a board of war, and required him to contribute money and provisions and to give a bond in the sum of £2,000 to appear at the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts and give an account of his conduct in the conflagration which soon followed. His loss in property was very heavy. In 1778 he was prosecuted and banished. After the Peace he settled at St. Andrews, where he died Nov. 23, 1796, aged 71 years. On March 5th, 1794, at a Vestry meeting of the Episcopal Church of which Mr. Pote was a member, the records tell us, the bad situation of the burying ground [located on Church Street] was taken into serious consideration and Mr. Pote offered to donate the lot then belonging to him at the upper part of King Street as a burying ground, which was accepted. He soon found a use for the new graveyard he had so generously donated, for his son Robert, a young man of 25 years, was buried there Nov. 8th, 1794. As before stated his own death occurred just two years later, and his widow, Elizabeth, died Dec. 24th, 1809, aged 79 years. They all lie near the centre of the lot and plain grey stones mark their graves. Robert Pagan and Thomas Wyer married daughters of Capt. Pote.
St. Andrews Standard
"The Early History of St. Andrews"
Extract from Paper by M. N. Cockburn, K. C.
Part Four
Feb. 28, 1907
Daniel and James McMaster were doing business as merchants at Boston before the war, but because of their loyalty and obedience to the laws they were compelled to leave. One or both of them joined the British at Castine, and came here with the Penobscot Loyalists. They carried on business in different parts of Charlotte County and held positions of trust and honor. Daniel married the only daughter of Rev. Andrews, first Rector of St. Andrews. One of the daughters of his brother James, (Charlotte) became the wife of the Rev. Samuel Thomson, first Rector of St. George. His only child is Mrs. Neville G. D. Parker, so well and so favorably known to us all. Mr. J. S. MacMaster, of St. Andrews, is a direct descendant of those illustrious men. In 1829 James MacMaster with his business partner, Mr. Allanshaw, conveyed by deed to Charlotte MacMaster Hardwood Island and MacMaster's Island in the Bay of Passamaquoddy. Those properties descended by heirship from her mother to Mrs. Parker, and no conveyance of any part thereof was ever made until Hardwood Island was sold to Dr. Woodworth in 1906, over an unbroken period of 77 years.
Dr. Califf was one of the first physicians to settle and practice in St. Andrews. He came with the Penobscot Loyalists and built a house at the upper end of the town. He died here in 1812, aged 88. Dr. Thomas Emerson, formerly of the Royal Fencibles American, also practiced for several years in St. Andrews, and was afterwards assistant surgeon in the 104th Regiment which he accompanied in the famous winter march to Canada. He died in Fredericton, 1834, aged 81. Dr. Balthazar Stickney also practiced here, for a short time. All of these first physicians were original grantees in the Town Plat.
Capt. Samuel Osburn was the grantee of the island now owned by Mr. E. L. Andrews and Sir William Van Horne. He conveyed it to the Rev. Samuel Andrews in 1786, from whom it took the name of "Minister's Island." That part now owned by Mr. E. L. Andrews has never since passed out of the Andrews family, he being the fourth in direct succession to own and occupy the same.
Capt. Osburn, the grantee of the Island, it is said in the Frigate Ariadne cruised all winter in Passamaquoddy Bay to protect the Loyalists from the Indians during the first year after they landed.
John McIntosh lived on the North slope of the hill in St. Andrews, not far from the site now occupied by the Algonquin Hotel. When he grew old and infirm, his daughter Katy McIntosh took charge of the property, and from her Katy's Cove took its name. She was a large woman of masculine strength and appearance, and a terror to the boys who ventured to trespass on her lands. She it was who gave utterance to the prediction, "Dam Katy's Cove? Katy's Cove will never be dammed!," a prophecy which stood good until in 1906, the year the C. P. R. dammed it.
John Lillie, in addition to being one of the grantees of the town of St. Andrews, had a grant of land at Oak Bay. The steep hill just on the east side of the Gallop Stream on the road leading to St. Stephen, called "Lillie Hill," took its name from that early settler.
Several of the first framed houses built in St. Andrews, it is said, were taken down at Castine, Maine, and the frame and materials brought here and rebuilt. Perhaps there is only one now remaining. That dwelling sits on the westerly side of William Street near the harbour front, is owned by the heirs of the late Donald Clark, and is occupied by Mrs. Alex. Donald. Andrew Martin owned it at the time of its being placed in its present location, and kept it as a hotel. It was called "The St. Andrews Coffee House." Mr. Martin purchased the building at Castine from John MacPhail. The original bill for the materials presented by MacPhail is said to be still extant, and the following is a true copy thereof:
Andrew Martin to John Macphail, Dr.
Estimate of the value of the St. Andrews Coffee House, with the expense of removing it to St. Andrews:
To the house taken down at Penobscot £ 30 0 0
To freight from there to St. Andrews £ 13 10 0
To taking down three thousand bricks £ 6 0 0
To freight £ 2 10 0
To 1,000 feet seasoned boards £ 2 10 0
To 4 window frames, cases and sashes glazed £ 4 0 0
To one panel door £ 1 0 0
The frame of the house at present owned and occupied by Mr. Harry Boone is also said to have been brought from Castine.
St. Andrews Beacon
Feb. 25, 1907
"The Loyalists of St. Andrews"
A lengthy paper on "The Loyalists of St. Andrews" was recently read before the Canadian Literature Club of St. Andrews by Mr. R. E. Armstrong, President of the Club. Copious extracts were made from the writings of Mr. James Vroom, Prof. Ganong and Dr. G. U. A.Y.; the Session Records of Charlotte County, the minute books of the Friendly Society of St. Andrews and of the St. Andrews and Quebec Railroad Association and also from the Educational Report of New Brunswick.
The writer of the paper described our Loyalist forefathers as "sturdy defenders of the British flag and British Crown when the colony to the south rose in rebellion against the King. They were men who were willing to sacrifice - and who did sacrifice in many cases - all that was near and dear to them for the sake of their country. They were patriots in the truest and broadest sense of the word. Wealth, position, domestic happiness - all that men prize most - these men gave up for the country they loved. We honor the glorious deeds, the noble self-sacrifice of our Loyalist ancestry. We prize their memory in our hearts. What grander foundation could a young nation rest upon than the heritage of such noble, self-sacrificing patriotism!
"As to the character of these men and women - for the women were as brave and as loyal as the men - their very act of heroic self-sacrifice stamps their character. They were men of broad outlook; strong, manly men; men of erudition and refinement; men without fear, except that fear of God; men who could grapple with any question, graduates of the best schools of learning in the world, shrewd in business - these were the men who laid the foundations of this Canada of ours. Looking about us today, noting our well-laid-out town, with its broad streets and magnificent shade trees, we can see reflected in them the character of the Loyalists of 1783. Everything indicates cultured minds, refined, aesthetic tastes and sturdy manhood. What they did they did well. If there is any room for regret in this connection at all it is that their descendants have made such little progress along the lines marked out by them and that the beautiful town which they fashioned in this little corner of the empire has not as yet realized the fond hopes that its founders entertained for it."
As Mr. Jas. Vroom's contributions to the paper possess great historical value they are herewith appended:
"On my arrival at Passamaquoddy the 23rd Sept. I found there had been several surveyors exploring the rivers, and a number of settlers having taken possession of St. Andrews Point. . . . I also received information that two public surveyors were there in the place for the purpose of laying out townships. . . . On the 3rd of October two large transports and several smaller vessels with a number of families arrived at St. Andrews from Bagaduce (Castine). . . . I passed by the ships and cautioned them not to land any inhabitants, but a few days after the whole were landed to the amount of forty families. By what I can learn from good authority, the general plan of the Britons is to claim all the lands which produce lumber in the bay of Passamaquoddy as being under the jurisdiction of Nova Scotia. A company composed of a number of wealthy persons, among the rest Pagan, formerly of Casco Bay, one of the principal managers, intend to carry on the business to a great amount at Passamaquoddy."
- Extracts from a letter of Col. John Allan to the Governor of Massachusetts, December, 1783.
Robert Pagan was born at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1750. While still a young man he carried on an extensive business in lumbering at Falmouth (now Portland, Maine). He died at St. Andrews in 1821, leaving no children. William Pagan was a brother, I believe, and Thomas and Robert Junior were probably nephews. (For more extended notice of Judge Pagan and others, see Sabine's Loyalists of the American Revolution.) As a businessman, a representative in the Legislature, a Colonel of Militia, and a Magistrate and Judge of the local courts, Robert Pagan had an important influence in the conduct of affairs in this county in its early days. There is a memorial tablet in All Saints Church, and Pagan's Cove at Oak Bay (formerly Pagan's Mill Cove) and Pagan Street, St. Stephen, perpetuate the name. Jeremiah Pote, father-in-law of Robert Pagan, was also a merchant of Falmouth proscribed and banished for loyalty. He died at St. Andrews in 1796, at the age of seventy-one. (See Sabine)
Thomas Wyer, another son-in-law of Captain Jeremiah Pote, who became first Sheriff of the county, had been a Customs officer at Falmouth. I judge that he was the writer of a letter dated at Penobscot, Jan. 1784, which comes the nearest of anything we have to giving the date of the final evacuation of Castine; and which, if my guess of the authorship is right, allows that there was a sort of family compact in the management of the enterprise.
"I expect four or five days to leave . . . as this place will be evacuated in the course of a fortnight. I shall move to a place called St Andrews, Passamaquoddy, in Nova Scotia, on the western side of the Bay of Fundy. . . . The inhabitants of this place all intend settling there, many having been there three months and have got houses erected to the number of sixty or seventy. . . . Capt. Pote, Robert Pagan and myself are agents for all the people who intend settling there."
The following are the names of the 178 men actually present at St. Andrews, by a muster roll of June 10, 1784, with whom were 102 women, 206 children over ten years of age, and 163 children under ten: [truncated]
Jeremiah Pote. (Above mentioned)
Colin Campbell came from Scotland during the war. Did business as a merchant in St. Andrews for a few years but was not financially successful. Returned to Scotland in 1808. (It may have been he, instead of Thomas Wyer, who wrote the letter above quoted.) His eldest son, Donald, was one of the children under ten in the muster roll. He afterwards became a rear admiral and married a sister of Sir Howard Douglass. Three other boys are named in the muster roll: Alexander, John and Colin. The latter became Sheriff of the County in 1833 and died in St. Andrews in 1843. He alone, of a family of twelve brothers and sisters, remained in the province. He married a daughter of Capt. James Campbell, of Pennfield, cousin of Sir Archibald, who was afterwards Governor of the province. (He is not the Colin Campbell who was at one time Collector of Customs at St. Andrews and president of the Charlotte County Bank.) John Campbell of Barbeck, Colonel of the 74th and Commandant of the forces at Castine, afterwards made Brigadier General, was a nephew of the Colin Campbell of the muster roll. As head of the firm of John Campbell and Co., he succeeded his uncle in the business at St. Andrews when, I believe, the latter went to St. John, where he was in government employ for some time before his return to Scotland. Gen. Campbell's name does not appear in the roll of the Penobscot settlers at St. Andrews (this list) because he was mustered among the members of the Seventy-Fourth Association, but he is, most probably, one of the John Campbells of the grant.
Robert Pagan (Above mentioned)
Moses Gerrish. Graduate of Harvard in the class of 1762. For many years a magistrate in Grand Manan, where he died in 1830. (See Sabine)
Thomas Wyer (Above mentioned)
William Gallop. Gave name to Gallop Stream at the head of Oak Bay where he had a mill. Was one of the first magistrates appointed after the arrival of the Loyalists. Registrar of Deeds, 1786-9.
John Jones. Capt. Jones was one of the surveyors who laid out the lands for the loyalists in Charlotte County. Formerly a surveyor for the Plymouth Company, he made several fine settlements at Kennebec before the war. He lost an ample fortune for his attachment to the British cause.
Benjamin Milliken. Of his sixteen or more children, two settled permanently in St. George. One Dominicus, is the ancestor of the Millikens of that place and Eastport; the other became the wife of Stewart Seelye, a Pennfield Loyalist, from whom are descended the Seeley's of St. George.
Thomas Ross. From Falmouth. Settled at Grand Manan where an island preserves his name. Died at sea in 1804.
James Doty. Ancestor of the Doughty's of Deer Island and the Dotens of Oak Bay.
Robertson Croker. Properly Robinson Croker, as in the grant. Was here before the Loyalists came, and his loyalty before that time had been very questionable, if St. Stephen traditions may be accepted. Yet he was chosen as one of the first vestrymen of St. Stephen, when the church corporation was organized in 1802. He came from some part of New England.
William Swain. A man of property who came with the Loyalists from Castine. He engaged in lumbering on the St. Croix and built the first mill at what is now called Milltown. Afterwards in business at St. Andrews for some years.
John McIntosh. Owned farm back of town. From his daughter, Katy, the cove here got its name of Katy's Cove.
William Gammons. Properly William Gammon. The spelling of names in this list is faulty owing apparently to copying from the original sheets into the record books. The name of William Gammon is prominent from the accident of its appearing first on the grant of the St. Andrews town lots as he drew lot No. 1. He died within a year, leaving his property to a son of the same name who sold to Robert Pagan.
William Towers. From him the name of Tower Hill at which place he died in 1835. He was engaged in building the court at Castine and is said to have built the first house at St. Andrews after the removal, possibly not for himself, but as a master builder. There is a tradition that his wife jumped from the boat and waded ashore in her eagerness to be the first to land on the site of their new home.
James Russell. Passed his winter on his Bayside farm lot (probably the winter of 1784-5) in a shelter hollowed out of the bank at Sandy Point, presumably engaged in clearing the land, while his family remained in town. Afterwards found among the trees on the Point, remains of an old French building that could easily have been made habitable.
John Lilly. Gave name to Lilly Hill, at the head of Oak Bay, where his farm lot lay.
Daniel Layman. This Daniel Leeman, who lived for a time at Oak Bay and then moved to Deer Island.
Andrew Martin. Kept the St. Andrews Coffee House, which was taken down at Castine in December, 1785 and rebuilt at St. Andrews.
Benjamin Bradford. Descendant of Gov. Bradford of the Plymouth Colony. Established the ferry from Bayside to Oak Point, long known as Bradford's ferry.
Ralph Taylor. A naval officer under Mowat at the siege of Penobscot. He was called into active service again in the French war of 1703 [sic]. Standing on his quarterdeck while a French vessel he had engaged was lowering her flag in token of surrender, he was fatally wounded by a musket ball from the enemy ship. He was said to have been heir to a valuable estate in the Island of Wight.
James Stinton. Should of course be Stinson.
William Stewart. Said to have owned a large property in Gloucester, Mass. Finally settled on Deer Island, and from him are descended the Stuarts of that place.
Benjamin Pomeroy. From Massachusetts. Pomeroy Ridge where he finally settled bears his name.
Moses Sprague. A pre-Loyalist settler after whom is name Sprague Falls.
Matthew Thornton. Nephew of the signer of the Declaration of Independence. Escaped from persecution after being imprisoned and acquitted. Came to St. Andrews or near there before the Loyalist settlers.
Jeddiah Pribble. Possibly a pre-Loyalist and a relative of Capt. John Preble; but the latter was one of the two pre-Loyalist settlers here that are known to have been actively disloyal, the other being James Boyd, who attempted to plant a colony at St. Andrews earlier.
David Mowat. Son-in-law of Dr. Caleff, and cousin of Capt. Henry Mowat of Penobscot fame. (Possibly it was a younger David Mowat who was Caleff's son-in-law. The marriage, I believe, took place in St. Andrews.)
John Calif. Dr. John Caleff, of Ipswich, Mass. Sent as delegate to Great Britain by the Castine Loyalists, to endeavor to have the Penobscot made the boundary line. Practiced as physician and surgeon at St. Andrews and died there 1812 aged 88.
William Moore. Of New Boston, N.H. Built the first mill at Moore's Mills.
Colin Campbell. There were four lieutenants of this name in the Penobscot garrison. Probably this was one of them.
Cato and six other negro men whose names are given, who had probably been slaves before the war.
Sampson Strong ["Negro"]
Reuben Strong ["Negro"]
Boston Steel ["Negro"]
Sampson Fogs ["Negro"]
Wm Troop ["Negro"]
Samuel [no last name, "Negro"]
Cato [no last name, "Negro"]
James/A Negro/ [child under 10 – no parentage given]]
It is significant that with those 178 men, there were 102 women and 369 children. The proportion of men in the other Passamaquoddy settlements was much greater. At Belle Vue (Beaver Harbour), with 192 men there were only 60 women and 112 children; at St. George's Town, (L'Etang) with 108 men there were 40 women and 54 children; at Morristown (St. Stephen) 114 men, 48 women and 39 children; and in the Seventy-Fourth Association 125 men, 32 women and 48 children.
The 74th Argyle Highlanders, whose lands were at Digdeguash and Milltown, were nominally mustered at St. Andrews in May 1784. Some of them no doubt were actually present and remained to become permanent residents. Part of the regiment had been disbanded at Castine on Christmas eve, 1783. The association seems to have been formed later, probably at Halifax; and its members, or some of them, came to St. Andrews at the following spring. With them, or scattered about elsewhere along the coast and islands of Charlotte County, were discharged officers and soldiers of other regiments returned separately in the muster roll - the 84th, the 64th, the late North Carolina Highlanders, the Nova Scotia Volunteers, the King's Orange Rangers, the Royal Garrison Battalion, the Regiment of Specht, the 70th and two or three others. Among the prominent men of these military settlers may be mentioned the following, who resided in St. Andrews for a time, or have descendants now living there.
Of the 74th - Peter McCallum, Dugald Clarke, David Craig, John Cockburn, Walter McFarlan, Hugh Cameron, Duncan McColl.
Of the N.C. Highlanders - Lt. Col. Allan Stewart, Capt. Angus McDonald, Capt. Alex. McRea. [see Moses Stewart p. 177]
Among the Castine Loyalists whose names are not included in the muster roll (for some reason which I cannot explain) were Daniel and James McMaster, who had been merchants in Boston and who, with the possible exception of the Pagans, may be safely regarded as the most prosperous merchants of St. Andrews in the early days.
John Dunn is another grantee not named in the muster roll, though he became a resident. He came from New York and was perhaps not one of the Castine colony. He held important positions in St. Andrews, first as the second Sheriff of the county, and afterwards as Comptroller of Customs.
Another was John Fraser, who, in company with Gillam Butler and Capt. Thomas Storrow, did business at Campobello and St. Andrews.
These may have all been so well off that they would not accept the King's bounty, and therefore were not enrolled, or they have been non-residents at the time. . . .
That the French had dwelling houses at St. Andrews Point is by no means certain. I had thought that the house which Gourdan and his people were engaged in building at the time of Col. Church's raid, 1704, was at this point. Dr. Ganong, whose judgments are pretty safe, thinks it more probable that Pleasant Point was the place. There was certainly an old Indian burial place near where the C. P. R. station stands; and there was the usual large wooden cross nearby probably facing the water near the harbor entrance. The priest named St. André, whose name was given to the Point (if there ever was such a man) had a hut such as the Indians built for themselves, if he followed the usual missionary custom. There is no record of a church building and if one had been standing in 1704 the Church would have been sure to mention it.
In 1767 James Boyd, a Scotsman, living on Indian Island and engaged in fishing and trading with the Indians, applied to the Nova Scotia government for fifty thousand acres of land on condition of settling fifty families thereon. The site included the present sites of St. Andrews and St. Stephen. Acting for Boyd, James Brown and Jeremiah Frost, in 1761 or the year previous, erected a hut near to where the public landing in St. Andrews now is, which was said to be the first building of any kind ever put up by any English subject at or near that place. Boyd's plans failed and though he claimed to have settled twenty-six families on the whole tract they probably left no permanent dwelling. Being disloyal, he found it advisable to leave before the close of the war. Some of his settlers remained and their presence at Moose Island (Eastport) though they were not active partisans, helped to hold that island by occupation for the state of Massachusetts.
Two Loyalist refugees, Ephraim Young and John Hanson, were living at St. Andrews when the Castine people came, the former probably on St. Andrews Island and the latter on Minister's Island. It is not known that there were any houses on the town site and certainly no one but the Indians claimed it by occupation. I have a list of forty others who were living along both sides of the river from Campobello to the head of the tide waters, and on the Digdeguash, exclusive of the Owen settlement on Campobello which was scattered by the war.