432 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
The parish lines have undergone very extensive changes since 
their establishment, which can however be followed very readily 
through the Acts of the Assembly aided by the early maps, supples 
mented in certain complicated cases by the original grant plans in the 
Crown Land Office. For the purposes of this monograph, and in 
order to keep its proportions, I have thought it best not to attempt to 
give all these changes in minute detail, though their general character 
is traced in the synopsis below. In local county histories, however, 
this minute discussion will be in place, and every such history pub- 
lished in New Brunswick in the future should give such facts, which 
may be readily traced through the sources above mentioned. 
In addition to the civil parishes here treated, there are several in 
the cities and towns established for ecclesiastical purposes only, but 
these are not mentioned in the following synopsis. 
It is of interest to note what accurate indices the parishes form 
to the progress of settlement in New Brunswick. The first parishes, 
as Map No. 35 will show, were entirely along the waterways, mostly on 
the lower courses of the larger rivers, for it was there the earlier 
settlements lay. Later they have extended up the rivers and inland 
(compare Maps No. 39, 1), always following settlement. At first, in 
1786, the parishes were in most of the counties simply erected of a 
certain size to enclose a settlement, leaving a great part, often (as in 
York and Northumberland), the greater part, unassigned to any parish, 
and it was not until 1826 that all of the land of all of the counties was 
finally assigned to parishes. Moreover, the sizes of the parishes at the 
present day reflect very clearly the density of settlement. Where they 
are small and numerous, as in Kings County, there is the population 
dense, while the great parishes of Stanley, Gordon, Northesk, South- 
esk, Lorne, Eldon, indicate the great wilderness area of the province, 
and the smaller wilderness areas are similarly indicated. There is 
much more of local interest in this correlation of parish evolution with 
the progress of settlement than I have tried to bring out, but we are 
concerned here rather with broader principles, and the details, being 
of strictly local interest, are more in place in local county histories. 
The very interesting origin of the nomenclature of the parishes 
has been traced in the Monograph on Place-Nomenclature, but some of 
the results there given need modification and extension (later to be 
offered) in consequence of later studies. Some needless duplications 
occur in the names. Thus, three parishes, St. John, Westmorland and 
Madawaska have the same names as their counties; one name, Simonds, 
is exactly duplicated (in St. John and Carleton); while Carleton County 
has a Kent parish and Kent County has a Carleton parish. 
