[ganong] origins of SETTLEMENTS IN NEW BRUNSWICK 57 



lands were executed so badly, north of the Bay of Fundy at least, that 

 much distress and disieontent ensued. A knowledge of this, and a desire 

 to provide employment for many worthy Loyalists already well versed 

 in government, led the British Government in 1784 to erect all that 

 part of Nova Scotia north of the Bay of Fundy, within which some 

 12,000 or more of the Loyalists were settled, into a separate province 

 called New Brunswick. Fox the new province a capital was needed, 

 which, temporarily placed at St. Jo'hn, was a year later, in 1785, located 

 at Fredericton, which was founded for this purpose. 



c. Loyalist readjustment. A large proportion of the Loyal Is fcs 

 wJio came to New Brunswick served as soldiers in the Loyalist regi- 

 menfts during several years of the Eevolution. But the life of a 

 soldier is a poor preparation for the occupation of pioneer farmer, 

 and they made resitless settlers, which fact, combined with the unfor- 

 tunate delay in assigning lands and with the restless spirit natural 

 to the times, made the earlier Loyalist settlements somewhat unstable. 

 There was much abandoning of grants (with later escheats and rc- 

 grants), resettlement m other localities, and moving in search of 

 better lands, opportunities for trade, etc., as well as a good deal of 

 return to the United States. This spirit existed for some years, and 

 produced a readjustment of tlie original Loyalist settlements in various 

 directions. Thus, many families, selling or abandoning their grants, 

 settled among the older settlers at Deer Island, at Campohello, and on 

 the St. John, in these cases, of course, purchasing their lands. The 

 settlers at Beaver Harbour left that place in a few years, and settled 

 in part of Pennfield Eidge. In other cases certain enterprising Loyal- 

 ists transferred themselves from Passamaquoddy and the St. John 

 to places of advantage elsewliere in the Province, notably to Nei'-' 

 Canaan on the Washademoak, to Moncton, to Hopewell, to the present 

 Dorchester, to Baie Verte, to Eichibucto, to EestigoucJie, to Tracadie, 

 to Shippegan, to Nepisiguit, and singly or in small groups no doubt 

 to other places on the North Shore also, while some of them possibly 

 reached the branches of the Upper St. John, especially the Becagui- 

 mec and Tobique. The Loyalists of Bay Chaleur probably came by 

 way of Quebec, and not from the St. John. In all of these places they 

 either purchased lands from earlier settlers, or else, and most fre- 

 quently, inaugurated their modem settlement, and later obtained 

 grants of lands. But the most important of the Loyalist readjust- 

 ment settlements were in the valley of the Miramichi, to which 

 considerable numbers (probably fifty families or more) of Loyalists 

 removed from the St. John and Nashwaak in 1785 to 1787, including 

 also some of the Nashwaak settlers of the -l^nd regiment, who abq 



