[ganoxg] historic SITES IN NEW BRUNSWICK 305 



not been abandoned by their owners, most of the seigniories, perhaps all 

 except La Vallière's, would have been forfeited for non-fulfilment of con- 

 ditions. Jn 1699 the King decreed that since many* of the Seigniors had 

 not complied with conditions, they must send copies of their grants to him^ 

 and in 1703 a royal decree was passed which must have annulled most of 

 the grants in what is now New Brunswick. After 1713 both English and 

 French claimed the territory now known as New Brunswick. In 1718 

 Father Loyard was empowered to grant lands on the St. John to Acadians, 

 but we do not know to what extent it was done. In 1734 the Lords of 

 Trade wrote from \yhitehall concerning seigniories in Nova Scotia, that 

 all Seigniors who remained in the Province at the treaty of Utrecht (1713) 

 and owned allegiance to Great Britain, could keep what they were legally 

 possessed of before that time, but those who had left the Province and 

 since returned could have no such rights. In 1743 the King of France 

 decreed that all lands unsettled should revert to the Crown. In 1759 the 

 Nova Scotia Legislature passed an act to the effect that any action to re- 

 cover lands based on a French title should be dismissed. The final dis- 

 appearance from history of the New Brunswick seigniories does not, 

 however, come until the middle of the last century, when the brothers 

 and sister Rey-Gaillard, heirs of I>enys de Fronsac, claimed the seigniories 

 formerly held by him, including his own of Miramichi and those of Nepisi- 

 guit and Eestigouche, acquired by him from G-obin and Iberville, and 

 attempted to collect rents fi'om the fishermen and traders resorting 

 there. Finally they sold their rights to a Mr. Bondfield of Quebec, who 

 in 1764 claimed these lands from the Nova Scotia Government,^ but was 

 referred to the ordinance of 1759, with which the matter ended, and the 

 last vestige of the seigniorial tenure in New Brunswick vanished. 



The location of the majority of the seigniories is so fully described in 

 the grants, there can be little doubt as to their position, and they are laid 

 down on the accompanying- map No. 39, in which dotted lines are used 

 wherever boundaries are doubtful. The names of seigniories are in heavy 

 square letters. The afccuracy with which the bounds are described shows 

 that they must have been granted from the descriptions of those who 

 knew the localities, for the descriptions are far in advance of the general 

 geographical knowledge of the times. There is no map of the entire 

 Acadian period which shows the St. John river with any approach to the 

 completeness and accuracy of geography displayed in the wording of the 

 grants. 



It is a matter much to be regretted that the names of the seigniories 

 have all become extinct, for many of them are vastly finer names than 

 many which have succeeded them. It would be an excellent plan as new 

 names are needed for settlements or parishes to revive these old names, 

 pleasing as they are, and connected with our early history. It would, of 



1 Murdoch, IL, 441. 



