94 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The arrangements for settling the loyalists at St. John were en- 

 trusted to Major Gilfred Studholme of the Royal Fencible Regiment, 

 who commanded the garrison at Fort Howe at the mouth of the 

 river. He was an honest and capable ofificial, but it was quite im- 

 possible to please everybody. Old soldiers and old time profiteers 

 were just as keen to seek their individual interests as their modern 

 representatives are. The ultra-tories and aristocrats among the 

 loyalists were not especially considerate for the disbanded soldiery 

 and humbler classes. The latter were not as reasonable and patient, 

 perhaps, as they might have been. It was but fair that the democracy 

 of the day should have its champion and such an one was found in 

 Elias Hardy. 



In laying out the towns of Parr and Carleton the surveyor em- 

 ployed was Paul Bedell, and right well he did his work. The name of 

 Parr, or Parr-town, as applied to St. John, came into use in August, 

 1783. Edward Winslow tells us in one of his racy letters that the town 

 was christened by Major Studholme and others in consequence of a 

 letter from Col. Parr, the Governor of Nova Scotia, to Studholme, 

 wherein he makes the request pointedly, but says, "that the idea 

 originated in female vanity." The name was never popular nor was 

 it apparently adopted with unanimity. It lasted less than two 

 years. 



In the work of apportioning the lots, Studholme was assisted by 

 a board of directors, including George Leonard, William Tyng, Rev. 

 John Sayre, John Coffin and James Peters, with Oliver Arnold as 

 Secretary. As the season passed the arrivals of those who had been 

 sent to St. John by Sir Guy Carleton proved far greater than had been 

 expected, and in consequence the lots were divided and subdivided, 

 on the arrival of almost every Fleet of transports, until the lots as- 

 signed to the first comers had been reduced to one sixteenth of their 

 original dimensions. 



When the fall Fleet arrived on the 26th September, with more 

 than 3,000 disbanded soldiers and their helpless dependents, no proper 

 arrangements had been made for their reception, and winter was 

 nigh at hand. There was an outcry that reached even to Halifax. 

 It did not bring the Governor to investigate. But it brought Elias 

 Hardy to the fore as the advocate of the people. 



Complaints were by no means limited to the illiterate class. 

 Colonel Edward Winslow, a Harvard graduate, in whose veins there 

 flowed the best blood of the Pilgrims of 1620, is equally outspoken. 

 He writes to his friend Major Joshua Upham in these words: 



